Be afraid. Be very, very afraid. Because if Thursday’s episode of American Idol is any indication, a large part of the series’ audience has no idea what a good singer sounds like, and next week, those people are going to start determining who goes home.
Throughout Thursday’s episode, during which the final 10 guys sang for their spots in the top 20, the judges were at odds with the audience, who were apparently watching a different show than the rest of us. When Nicki Minaj or Randy Jackson would do their jobs and point out the issues with each singer’s performance, the audience would not only groan, but boo so vehemently that at one point Nicki was forced to fire back at them just so she could finish speaking. This is not good news.
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Next week, half of the performers in our top 20 will be voted off the show, and if the sizable audience in Las Vegas couldn’t tell the difference between a cute guy with little talent and a truly spectacular performer, how can we trust the audience at home? Perhaps we should just hope and pray that the people in Las Vegas were just drunk off the fumes from all the spilled alcohol throughout the streets of the party town.
But complaints aside, the main event of the evening were the performances, because surprise, that’s the point of the show.
First up is the never totally pleasant Mathenee Treco, who continues his trend of wasting the parts of his performance style that are appealing by covering them up with his brand of bro karaoke. He’s got a good voice under it all, but the guy has no idea what to do with it. His rendition of “A Little Less Conversation” is spastic and unpleasant; he allows the song to take him over and it swallows him whole. Randy, Nicki, and Keith dislike the performance, though Nicki’s the only one who points out that it’s the fault of Mathenee’s cheese-factor and not just his poor song choice. Mariah says she likes him, because she’s proved she can offer no other commentary, but it’s not enough to keep him from going home.
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Gupreet Singh Sarin follows Mathenee right out the door, and to be honest, I have no idea how this guy got this far in the first place. Sure, Nicki loves him, but even in his last performance, which all of the judges reminisce about as some great “moment” (and we all know how they love those moments), Gupreet was only mediocre. This week, “Nothing Ever Hurt Like You” is just plain awful. There’s nothing remarkable about any of it. His vocals are boring and off-key. It feels like the last hour at a wedding when your drunk cousin grabs the mic and starts making up words to all the instrumental parts of songs. It’s terrible and even Mariah agrees, though she’s not quite at Nicki’s level of “Hell. No.”
Finally, one of the guys is worth watching. Vincent Powell is someone I could actually imagine voting for. While his look is somewhat stolen from Cee-Lo Green’s closet, his performance of “Because I Love You” is pretty incredible. He’s got an interesting voice, control over his vocals, and a knack for completely organic runs. The guy’s got what everyone in this competition keeps pretending to have: a sense of artistry. Luckily, the judges saw the same thing I did (though I didn’t quite have the panty-throwing urge Nicki was clearly having) and Randy even connected Vincent’s style to Miguel and Frank Ocean, two artists who are owning this moment in music. He’s a real singer and he makes sense in the current scene, so thankfully he’s sticking around for the big vote next week.
Delivering a bit of a disappointing number is Nick Boddington, who tries “Say Something Now.” This guy was so incredible during Hollywood week, but Thursday’s performance is boring. He’s got a nice voice, but there’s little connection to the song. It’s something Keith and Nicki pick up on, but Randy says he knows Nick can do better if he could just get himself one of those moments Randy never stops ranting about. Regardless, Nick was happy in the final moments of the episode, because he managed to eke out a spot in the top 20.
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And from a lack of connection to a lack of touch, the famous pants-ripper Josh Holliday steps onstage to sing an original song he wrote during Hollywood Week. You’d think the guy would want to do a song that’s had a little more time to gestate, but this is the person who didn’t think before doing a split in non-stretch khakis on a stage in front of 20 guys and four industry experts. The performance is alright and almost a little tender when Josh starts at the piano, but as he continues singing his trite lyrics and gets up from the piano to dance around and feign emotion, any potential he had dissipates immediately. He’s showy and cloying, not passionate, and the judges can feel it. Keith gets away with saying Josh needed to be more passionate, but Nicki is booed to death by the audience when she dares to suggest that Josh wasn’t all that great (now, if only she wasn’t totally and completely CORRECT). Randy’s not impressed and even Mariah defers her commentary to the audience, suggesting “Well, at least the audience sure loved it.”
And this is why I’m worried. Josh was not good. If we’re going to sugarcoat it, sure, he lacked passion, but the audience couldn’t even deal with the suggestion that it wasn’t great. These people are going to be the ones sending good singers home next week. Luckily, Josh is sent home, so he won’t be around to cloud their judgement.
The judges aren’t always right though. David Wallis makes a mistake with his song choice, but still manages to prove he’s a good singer who’s ready to take his talent to the next level. He sings “Fever” and it leaves him in a bit of a rut until he gets to the song’s finale and breaks out something a little special. And even though he gets a little too comfortable in his little rocking back and forth groove, it’s a good groove. Randy and Keith like it, but they think he needs a bigger opportunity to show off. Nicki thinks it’s amateur and that he wasn’t current enough, but perhaps that’s because his rendition wasn’t super sexy. Either way, his journey ends, likely so Lazaro Arbos, the heartbreaking so-so singer can stay on a little longer.
Bryant Tadeo of Hawaii takes us into his laid back world, but perhaps we takes it back one too many notches. His performance of “New York State of Mind” shows that he’s clearly got a good voice, but man is it cheesy and boring. You can’t do this song with this arrangement without it feeling dated unless you are the Piano Man, himself. While Keith likes it, Nicki hates everything except for the last couple of notes, earning her some serious anger from the crowd. But Randy agrees, saying the song didn’t go anywhere and as the crowd loses its mind over the truth, Mariah brings them back into “woo-hoo” territory when she simply says he sounded “professional.” That’s not a compliment, Mariah. I have a green shift dress that is very professional, but I never wear it because it’s no fun and I’d much rather wear basically anything else I own. “Professional” is not the mark of a good performer, sweetheart, and it’s not the mark of someone who gets a spot in the top 20.
Thankfully, the bad taste in our mouths is abolished by the sweet, sweet singing of my favorite guy on the show, Burnell Taylor of New Orleans. He wisely and bravely chooses “This Time” by John Legend, which is an excellent song choice because he’s got a voice in Legend’s genre without sounding exactly him. He’s good, a little strange in his movements, but totally genuine. While Burnell doesn’t have a huge range, he’s a great singer and the sort of person whose effortless style ropes an audience in until they're hopelessly devoted to his every last work. He’s got it all. He’s wonderful. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s super cute. While Keith and Randy simply love it, Nicki has to take it up a notch: she would pay to hear him sing RIGHT. NOW. BOO. And while Nicki connects to his story of misfortune (which is exactly what we hate about Idol), it is actually very sweet that she wholeheartedly thinks he deserves it. Mariah pitches in and says a lot of things, but it’s not worth trying to crack that code because no one doubted that Burnell was going to be asked to stay on for another week.
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Now comes the hard part: total sweetheart and chronic stutterer Lazaro Arbos hits the stage looking dapper in his bright pink button-up and little black bowtie to take on Keith’s song “Tonight I Wanna Cry.” He’s a sweet, loveable guy, but he’s simply out of place in the competition. And it’s not for lack of vocal quality: it’s lack of training. Another year, after some training, perhaps Lazaro could be a strong enough performer and confident enough to be a real contender. This year, he’s either going to get swallowed up, or pushed along through the competition with sympathy votes until voters can’t support him any more. But he doesn’t deserve that. This sweet guy deserves to be told the truth, do some work to better his performance, and return triumphantly like the girls’ Candice Glover did this season. Still, the judges can’t send him home and he stays on for another week.
For the finale, the show gives us Cortez Shaw, who’s still a little too cocky for his own good. He does a slow rendition of “Titanium” by David Guetta, which is a song I hate and if I’m being honest, I spent the first half of Cortez’s performance trying desperately to conquer my hatred. Once that subsided enough to hear clearly, it was obvious that Cortez’s vocal range is a thing of beauty; he can hit high notes that most men can’t even dream of. But as Keith points out, his chosen tune exposes all the flaws in his voice and while the good parts are great, the connecting parts are lacking. It’s something that can’t last if this guy is to stick around and become a serious performer. Nicki doesn’t seem to see an issue because she’s blinded but the fact that she finds Cortez sexy. (Hey, let’s give the girl a break. Getting booed for two hours probably does something a little unkind to one’s brain.)
Mariah is impressed (or something, who knows what she was really saying), but it’s Randy’s comment that really seals the deal for Cortez before he’s told he gets to stay: according to Mr. Yo Dawg, Cortez is extremely current and marketable. And to some extent it’s true. He’s handsome and has a smooth voice, but is he one of a kind? So far, no. Still, he’s another crowd favorite and if the applause is any indication, this crooner is going to take one of the few spots available to the Idol finalists at the end of next week. Color me as concerned as can be.
Are you worried that voters will pick the wrong singers next week? Who can’t you live without?
Follow Kelsea on Twitter @KelseaStahler
[Photo Credit: Michael Becker/Fox]
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Friends Turned Lovers... Twice? The NBC comedy Go On is reuniting a couple of Friends when Courteney Cox guest stars on an episode of Matthew Perry's show. Cox will join Perry, her former onscreen husband Chandler Bing, for an episode airing in April. She will play a woman whom Anne (Julie White) tries to set up with Perry's Ryan. It marks the duo's first small-screen reunion since the Emmy-winning NBC comedy ended its 10-season run in 2004. [THR]
Malibu is Getting a Lot More Country: Blake Shelton will play Reba McEntire's brother on the ABC comedy Malibu Country. The Voice coach will appear in the Friday, March 1 episode. Back in October, McEntire said she was courting Shelton for a guest role. "I've already talked to Blake and Kelly [Clarkson] and they said ... that they would appear, so we just got to get the script right when we need 'em in here," she said. [Huffington Post]
TV Tidbits: Robin Williams Gets Crazy; Ricki Lake Gets the Axe
Vampire Diaries Spinoff Finds Its Big Bad: Charles Michael Davis has just been cast as the big villain Marcel in The Vampire Diaries spinoff, The Originals. Co-starring opposite Joseph Morgan, Daniel Gillies and Phoebe Tonkin, the potential spinoff will be introduced in the April 25 episode of the CW drama. Written by TVD co-creator/executive producer Julie Plec, the show centers on the Original family of vampires, as Klaus (Morgan) returns to the supernatural melting pot that is the French Quarter of New Orleans — a town he helped build centuries ago — and is reunited with his diabolical former protégé Marcel (Davis). Wicked, wild and charismatic, Marcel is a former kicked-around street rat who now calls the shots in the supernatural playground of New Orleans. As a modern-day vampire, he’s fierce and bold, able to accomplish as much with his charm as he is with his strength. Elijah (Gillies), intent on helping his self-destructive brother find redemption, must side with Marcel’s enemies in order to keep Klaus in line. [Deadline]
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Arrow's Throwing a Party! DJ and producer Steve Aoki will make a cameo appearance as himself in an upcoming episode of The CW’s hit action series Arrow. Airing Wednesday, March 20 at 8 PM ET/PT, the episode features the long-awaited opening of Oliver Queen’s Starling City nightclub. Since money is no object for a billionaire like Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), he hires the world’s most in-demand DJ — Aoki — to play opening night at his new club. Tracks from Aoki’s recently released EP, It’s the End of the World As We Know It, will be included in the episode, in addition to tracks from affiliated artists on Aoki’s Dim Mak music label. [The CW]
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Game of Contracts: Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin just signed a two-year overall deal with HBO. Martin will continue as co-executive producer on GOT, whose Season 3 premieres March 31. Additionally, he will develop and produce new series projects for the network. [Deadline]
Extra Castle, It's What You Crave: ABC has just ordered an additional episode of Castle, making its season 5 a total of 24 episodes. The extra episode will air in April instead of a repeat. This is very good news for fans of the series who are waiting on an early Season 6 pickup. [EW]
[Photo Credit: Getty Images; WENN]
Follow Sydney on Twitter @SydneyBucksbaum
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Among all the sci-fi and superhero hoopla of San Diego Comic-Con, it was a western that caused one of the most formidable stirs in Hall H. However, Django Unchained, the latest film from cinephile-turned-master-director Quentin Tarantino, is no ordinary western. Having spoken with the unique film’s star Jamie Foxx, it seemed only sporting to reload questions and see how quick on the draw Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington, and Walton Goggins could be in the post-panel roundtable interviews.
A film set in the antebellum U.S. south and centering on a slave-turned-bounty hunter is sure to be thick with racial complexity. Luckily, Quentin Tarantino has reached a point in his career wherein his prestige affords him the ability to examine these issues. The cast members, not surprisingly, seem keenly aware of the subtext despite approaching it from different perspectives.
Christoph Waltz: “I knew nothing about this black/white thing. I could care less. And that’s because I grew up in a culture where you can afford not to care. But here in America, where it really is an issue, I was a little flabbergasted. Jamie introduced me to that and also to a specific perspective that I on my own would not have had. In a way I decided consciously to stay with the, admittedly comfortable, position to say, ‘I don’t know, because I don’t care.’ Not in an unsympathetic and detached way. For me, within my scope of thinking, it doesn’t exist as an issue and I like it that way.”
Kerry Washington: “One of the things I love about this character is that she exists in a time when historically black women were, of necessity, independently strong. The breakdown of the black community in order to maintain slavery began with the breakdown of the black family. Men and women were not legally allowed to get married, because you couldn’t have that kind of love; it might get in the way of the economics of slavery. Your children could be taken from you and literally sold down the river, which is where we get the expression. I love that this film is about two people who, even though they exist in a time when they are only 3/5 of a human being according to our Constitution, so believe in their own humanity and in the love that they share and their illegal marriage that they risk life to find each other. It’s so triumphant.”
Walton Goggins: “I got down to New Orleans and started bonding with some of the guys, some of the black actors. We started hanging out, had a lot of friends in common. And then comes your first day of work, and…you have to say these things and do these things. While liberal Walton didn’t have anything to apologize for, I began every take with an apology. These are my friends. It’s not easy — it’s awful to say these things. But you’re in the service of something much greater than yourself. You’re telling a piece of history that is the biggest blight on our history as a country. It needs to be retold, and I’m a part of that.”
The western is one of the oldest genres in cinema, it means different things to different people, and the cast of Django Unchained certainly runs the entire spectrum with their feelings on the subject.
Washington: “My dad really loves westerns. I never had a personal attachment to westerns. I’ve learned a lot more about the genre, but I don’t know that I would say it’s my favorite kind of movie.”
Waltz: “The spaghetti western is closer to me than the real western; geographically speaking. I grew up in the European west, on the west side of the iron curtain. Even thought the iron curtain was very close to where I grew up, it was still the west side. In a way I preferred the spaghetti western to the original western. Maybe, and this is speculation, because a certain distance to the original western, going back to the race issue, gives me distance from the core issue. It’s a good way, perhaps, to get a perspective. It’s not an objective perspective, but that brings us back to where we started. Objective is impossible, we do this for your subjective."
Next:
[Photo Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images, Weinstein Company]

Mary Elizabeth Winstead has already had the distinguished honor of playing both the blue-haired object of Scott Pilgrim's eye (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and John McClane's offspring (Live Free or Die Hard.) Now the actress can add another high-ranking title to her impressive resume: the First Lady.
The 26-year-old plays Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of the 16th President of the United States of America — and now, vampire combatant — Abraham Lincoln in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Like the rest of the film some artistic liberties were taken with the portrayal of the First Lady, including how she looked (having three names is about as close to resemblance as the two women have) and excluding her oft-speculated bipolar disorder.
But even with the changes, Winstead, who chatted with Hollywood.com about her work on the film, says there's still traces of the Mary Todd Lincoln we all learned about in history class and the one in writer Seth Grahame-Smith's script. "The more I learned about her [while researching], the more I wanted to bring as much truth to her as possible, and I feel like she's represented in the film in a realistic way to how she really was. I expected to read about her and for her to be wildly different from the way she was in the script, but I was surprised to find that it actually all matched up really well," Winstead explained.
Winstead credited director Timur Bekmambetov with rooting the grieving (a Lincoln family member is killed by a vampire) and, yes, ass-kicking First Lady (Mary Todd gets in her own satisfying vampire kill, which Winstead admitted was a good thing, "otherwise it would have been a bit of a letdown") in some reality. "Timur was great about talking to me about what was happening in her life that you don’t see in the movie. "During a scene, he would say, 'This is what she was doing right before she walked in the door,' or 'This is what she’s thinking when she’s not on screen'," Winstead told Hollywood.com, "So it sort of feels like all those things are happening in her life, you just don’t see it in the movie, but when I’m watching, I can see it in the air of what’s happening, and in their interaction, you can see how tense it is, and you can see how emotionally troubled they both are, but it’s just not spoken about."
But it wasn't just getting unseen details down for the film, but infusing a certain sensitivity about such an important time in American history. It was a responsibility, the star acknowledged, the cast and crew didn't take lightly. "We were filming in some places that had a really heavy air about them," Winstead said of the Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter shoot, "Like, we’d be filming on old southern plantations where you could see the slave quarters, and you felt the seriousness of that place, and the history of it. And those were moments where you felt like, okay, I hope we’re doing this right, and I hope we’re showing people that we’re really not trying to be offensive in any way, we’re not trying to make fun of the real story behind this, we’re really just trying to show a metaphor, really, for what happened. With Timur, you can see that he took the real story very seriously, and he had so much respect for Abraham Lincoln, and showed a lot of reverence for the real story and real events."
Still, there was some levity on the set. This is, after all, a movie called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. In addition to donning some impressive old age makeup ("It was cool to look in the mirror and think, 'I wonder if this is what I’m gonna look like',") Winstead and her on-screen husband, Benjamin Walker, a fellow music enthusiast, took advantage of getting to film in New Orleans. "We went out to a lot of jazz clubs,and saw live music, and we went to Jazz Fest. Ben and I would sometimes just hang out and he would play guitar and we would sing songs and stuff like that, you know, cheesy little singer downtime things."
It seems Winstead has been spending a good amount of time having fun on her sets. Not a difficult task when working on projects like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter or the upcoming ensemble comedy A.C.O.D., which features Amy Poehler, Adam Pally, Jane Lynch, and Adam Scott, among others. Winstead, who plays Scott's love interest in the comedy about, well, adult children of divorce, enjoyed a different kind of cut up. "It's the funniest people, it was so hard for me to keep a straight face during scenes. Like, one scene I was watching Catherine O’Hara and Richard Jenkins just improv, and [they're] going so quickly, and it's so funny, and I was just in awe." Okay, we'll bite.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter opens in theaters nationwide today.
[Photo credit: WENN.com/FayesVision]
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If Sundance is the studious valedictorian of film festivals, than South by Southwest is the party animal younger broth—who's just as smart (if not more) as his stuffy sibling. Held in Austin, Texas every March, SXSW is a rootin' tootin' celebration of cinema, hosting big Hollywood premieres, the best of the best from Sundance and plenty of off-beat indies primed and ready for discovery. Some of the year's best films premiere at the festival—need I remind you of Kill List—and most make their way to release, making SXSW a festival to keep your eye on.
The line-up for this year's fest has been officially release, and sports highly anticipated movies like Jonah Hill's 21 Jump Street and Cabin in the Woods, the long-awaited meta-horror from Lost/Cloverfield writer Drew Goddard and producer Joss Whedon, the premiere of Judd Apatow's new TV show Girls (written and starring Lena Dunham) and new projects from acclaimed directors like William Friedkin (The Exorcist), Kevin McDonald (Last King of Scotland), Will Ferrell, Jay Chandrasekhar of Broken Lizard and the Duplass Brothers (Cyrus).
Check out the films below and let us know which ones you want to hear more about!
HEADLINERS
Big names, big talent: Headliners bring star power to SXSW, featuring red carpet premieres and gala film events with some major and rising names in cinema.
Films screening in Headliners are:
21 Jump Street
Directed by: Phil Lord &amp; Christopher Miller, Screenplay by: Michael Bacall, Story by: Michael Bacall &amp; Jonah Hill
Police officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) get sent back to high school as undercover cops in the action-comedy 21 Jump Street. Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, with Ice Cube (World Premiere)
BIG EASY EXPRESS
Director: Emmett Malloy
Emmett Malloy’s latest film invites us aboard a train ride unlike any other with Mumford &amp; Sons, Edward Sharpe &amp; the Magnetic Zeros and Old Crow Medicine Show.
(World Premiere)
The Cabin in the Woods
Director: Drew Goddard, Screenwriters: Joss Whedon &amp; Drew Goddard
Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen. If you think you know this story, think again. From fan favorites Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard comes The Cabin in the Woods, a mind-blowing horror film that turns the genre inside out. Cast: Kristen Connolly, Fran Kranz, Anna Hutchison, Chris Hemsworth, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, and Bradley Whitford (World Premiere)
Decoding Deepak
Director: Gotham Chopra
Filmmaker Gotham Chopra spends a year on the road decoding his father and spiritual icon Deepak Chopra. (World Premiere)
Girls
Director/Screenwriter: Lena Dunham
Created by and starring Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture), the HBO show is a comic look at the assorted humiliations and rare triumphs of a group of girls in their early 20s.
Cast: Lena Dunham, Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet, Adam Driver (World Premiere)
The Hunter (Australia)
Director: Daniel Nettheim, Screenplay by: Alice Addison, Novel by: Julia Leigh, Original Adaptation by: Wain Fimeri
A mercenary is dispatched from Europe to the Tasmanian wilderness by a mysterious biotech company to search for the last surviving Tasmanian tiger.
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Frances O'Connor, Sam Neill (U.S. Premiere)
Killer Joe
Director: William Friedkin, Screenwriter: Tracy Letts
A garish, Southwestern tale - a violent black comedy about a desperate Texas debtor (Hirsch) who plots to kill his mother with help of his family (Haden Church, Gershon). They hire a crazy Dallas cop who moonlights as a contract killer (McConaughey) to do the job, but Killer Joe asks for their teenage daughter (Temple) as a retainer. The film is based on Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Letts' (August: Osage County) award winning play. Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Gina Gershon, Juno Temple, Thomas Haden Church (U.S. Premiere)
MARLEY (UK / USA)
Director: Kevin Macdonald
The definitive life story of Bob Marley - musician, revolutionary, legend - from his early days to his rise to international superstardom. Made with the support of the Marley family, the film features rare footage, incredible performances and revelatory interviews with the people that knew him best. Directed by Academy-Award-Winner Kevin Macdonald. (North American Premiere)
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION
This year’s 8 films were selected from 1,112 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere.
Films screening in Narrative Feature Competition are:
Booster
Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin
When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted.
Cast: Nico Stone, Adam DuPaul, Seymour Cassel, Kristin Dougherty, Brian McGrail (World Premiere)
Eden
Director: Megan Griffiths, Screenwriters: Richard B. Phillips, Megan Griffiths, Story by: Richard B. Phillips &amp; Chong Kim
A young Korean-American girl, abducted and forced into prostitution by domestic human traffickers, joins forces with her captors in a desperate plea to survive. Cast: Jamie Chung, Matt O'Leary, Beau Bridges, Jeanine Monterroza, Scott Mechlowicz (World Premiere)
Gayby
Director/Screenwriter: Jonathan Lisecki
Jenn and Matt, best friends since college who are now in their thirties, decide to have a child together, the old-fashioned way - even though Matt is gay and Jenn is straight. Cast: Jenn Harris, Matthew Wilkas, Mike Doyle, Anna Margaret Hollyman, Jack Ferver (World Premiere)
Gimme the Loot
Director/Screenwriter: Adam Leon
When Malcolm and Sofia’s latest graffiti masterpiece is buffed by a rival gang, these two determined Bronx teens must hustle, steal, and scheme to get spectacular revenge and become the biggest writers in the City. Cast: Tashiana Washington, Ty Hickson, Meeko, Zoe Lescaze, Sam Soghor
(World Premiere)
Los Chidos (Germany / Mexico / USA)
Director/Screenwriter: Omar Rodriguez Lopez
The Gonzales family tries hard to hold on to their beautiful Latino traditions of misogyny and homophobia when a tall, white, industrialist stranger appears, challenging their place in the exploitative food chain. Cast: Kim Stodel, María De Jesús Canales Ramírez, Manuel Ramos, Cecillia Gutiérrez, (World Premiere)
Pilgrim Song
Director: Martha Stephens, Screenwriters: Martha Stephens, Karrie Crouse
A pink-slipped music teacher ponders his stalled relationship and place in the world during an arduous trek across Kentucky’s Sheltowee Trace Trail. Cast: Timothy Morton, Bryan Marshall, Karrie Crouse, Harrison Cole, Michael Abbott Jr. (World Premiere)
Starlet
Director: Sean Baker, Screenwriters: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch
The film explores the unlikely friendship between 21-year-old Jane (Dree Hemingway), and 85 year-old Sadie (Besedka Johnson), two women whose worlds collide in California's San Fernando Valley.
Cast: Dree Hemingway, Besedka Johnson, Stella Maeve, James Ransone, Karren Karagulian
(World Premiere)
The Taiwan Oyster
Director: Mark Jarrett, Screenwriters: Mark Jarrett, Jordan Heimer, Mitchell Jarrett
Two Ex-Pat Kindergarten teachers in Taiwan embark on a quixotic odyssey to bury a fellow countryman. Cast: Billy Harvey, Jeff Palmiotti, Leonora Lim (World Premiere)NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT
High profile narrative features receiving their World, North American or U.S. Premieres at SXSW.
Films screening in Narrative Spotlight are:
The Babymakers
Director: Jay Chandrasekhar, Screenwriters: Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow
Unable to impregnate his wife, Tommy and friends rob a sperm bank - to get Tommy's long-ago donated sperm back. The crazy plan goes hilariously awry and shows how far a couple will go to create a new life.
Cast: Paul Schneider, Olivia Munn, Kevin Heffernan, Wood Harris, Nat Faxon (World Premiere)
Crazy Eyes
Director: Adam Sherman, Screenwriters: Adam Sherman, Dave Reeves &amp; Rachel Hardisty
Just another story about love.
Cast: Lukas Haas, Madeline Zima, Jake Busey, Tania Raymonde, Regine Nehy (World Premiere)
Do-Deca-Pentathalon
Director/Screenwriter: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
Two brothers compete in their own private 25-event Olympics.
Cast: Mark Kelly, Steve Zissis, Elton LeBlanc (World Premiere)
Fat Kid Rules The World
Director: Matthew Lillard, Screenwriters: Michael M.B. Galvin, Peter Speakman
Troy, a depressed overweight teenager, gets sucked into the punk rock world by Marcus, a charming street musician. But when Troy discovers Marcus’ drug addiction, he suddenly must figure out the true boundaries of friendship.
Cast: Jacob Wysocki, Matt O'Leary, Billy Campbell, Lilli Simmons, Dylan Arnold (World Premiere)
frankie go boom
Director/Screenwriter: Jordan Roberts
a flick by bruce about his little brother frank who's a crybaby fuck who shouldn't do lame-ass embarrassing shit if he dozn't want people 2 see it
Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Chris O'Dowd, Lizzy Caplan, Ron Perlman, Chris Noth (World Premiere)
Hunky Dory (UK)
Director: Marc Evans, Screenwriter: Laurence Coriat
From the producer of Billy Elliot comes this funny, coming of age film featuring songs from artists such as David Bowie, Lou Reed, The Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, Dusty Springfield and Electric Light Orchestra. Cast: Minnie Driver, Aneurin Barnard, Danielle Branch, Robert Pugh, Haydn Gwynne
(North American Premiere)
In Our Nature
Director/Screenwriter: Brian Savelson
Taking place over a single weekend, an estranged father and son accidentally end up in the same country house with their two girlfriends.
Cast: Zach Gilford, Jena Malone, John Slattery, Gabrielle Union (World Premiere)
Keyhole (Canada)
Director: Guy Maddin, Screenwriters: Guy Maddin, George Toles
I'm only a ghost... but a ghost isn't nothing.
Cast: Isabella Rossellini, Jason Patric, Udo Kier, Kevin McDonald, Tattiawna Jones (U.S. Premiere)
See Girl Run
Director/Screenwriter: Nate Meyer
What happens when a 30-something woman allows life's "what ifs" to overwhelm her appreciation for what life actually is. Disregarding her current obligations, she digs into her romantic past in hopes of invigorating her present.
Cast: Robin Tunney, Adam Scott, Jeremy Strong, William Sadler, Josh Hamilton (World Premiere)
Small Apartments
Director: Jonas Åkerlund, Screenwriter: Chris Millis
When Franklin Franklin accidentally kills his landlord, he must hide the body; but, the wisdom of his beloved brother and the quirks of his neighbors, force him on a journey where a fortune awaits him. Cast: Matt Lucas, Billy Crystal, James Caan, Johnny Knoxville, Juno Temple (World Premiere)
Somebody Up There Likes Me
Director/Screenwriter: Bob Byington
Time flies for everyone: Thirty-five years in the life of Max, his best friend Sal, and a woman they both adore. A deadpan fable about time sneaking up on and swerving right around us.
Cast: Keith Poulson, Nick Offerman, Jess Weixler, Stephanie Hunt, Kevin Corrigan (World Premiere)
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
This year’s 8 films were selected from 845 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere.
Films screening in Documentary Feature Competition are:
Bay of All Saints
Director: Annie Eastman
As the last of the notorious water slums is demolished in Bahia, Brazil, will three single mothers face homelessness or rally for a better life? (World Premiere)
Beware of Mr. Baker
Director: Jay Bulger
Ginger Baker is the original rock ‘n roll madman junkie drummer superstar who everyone thought was dead but somehow survived 50+ years of heroin abuse, disastrous experiments and 5 marriages on 4 continents. (World Premiere)
The Central Park Effect
Director: Jeffrey Kimball
The film reveals the extraordinary array of wild birds who grace Manhattan’s celebrated patch of green, and the equally colorful, full-of-attitude New Yorkers who schedule their lives around the rhythms of migration. (World Premiere)
Jeff
Director: Chris James Thompson
A documentary about the people around Jeffrey Dahmer during the 1991 summer of his arrest for the murder of 17 people in Milwaukee. (World Premiere)
Seeking Asian Female
Director: Debbie Lum
When an American man with "yellow fever" meets a Chinese woman half his age online, documenting their attempt to build a marriage from scratch reveals hilarious and troubling complications for the couple and the filmmaker. (World Premiere)
The Sheik and I
Director: Caveh Zahedi
Commissioned by a Middle Eastern Biennial to make a film on the theme of "art as a subversive act," independent filmmaker Caveh Zahedi (I am a Sex Addict) is threatened with a fatwa. (World Premiere)
The Source
Directors: Jodi Wille, Maria Demopoulos
The Source Family was a radical experiment in '70s utopian living. Their popular restaurant, rock band, and beautiful women made them the darlings of Hollywood; but their outsider ideals led to their dramatic undoing. (World Premiere)
Welcome To The Machine
Director: Avi Zev Weider
Upon fathering triplets, filmmaker Avi Zev Weider explores the nature of technology, seeking answers about what it means to be human. (World Premiere)
DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT
Shining a light on new documentary features receiving their World, North American or U.S. Premieres at SXSW.
Films screening in Documentary Spotlight are:
$ELLEBRITY
Director: Kevin Mazur
Renowned celebrity photographer, Kevin Mazur, gives us an all access pass to the life behind the velvet rope and in front of the camera. Candid, revealing and bold interviews with Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Lopez, Elton John and more, take us inside the blurred lines of privacy, pliable journalism, celebrity, fame and what it feels like to be consumed. (World Premiere)
America's Parking Lot
Director: Jonny Mars
Pull up a front row seat as two die-hard fans of 'America's Team' spend their last season with the Dallas Cowboys at historic Texas Stadium, and scramble to preserve their place in America’s Parking Lot. (World Premiere)
The Announcement
Director: Nelson George
On Thursday, November 7, 1991, Earvin “Magic” Johnson made the stunning announcement that he was HIV-positive and would be retiring from basketball immediately. The Announcement gets to the core of Magic’s incredible personal journey. (World Premiere)
Beauty Is Embarrassing
Director: Neil Berkeley
A funny, irreverent and inspirational look into the life and times of one of America's most important artists, Wayne White. (World Premiere)
Brooklyn Castle
Director: Katie Dellamaggiore
Amidst financial crises and unprecedented public school budget cuts, Brooklyn Castle takes an intimate look at the challenges and triumphs facing members of a junior high school’s champion chess team. (World Premiere)
Code of the West
Director: Rebecca Richman Cohen
Frames a high stakes showdown in the halls of the Montana State Legislature. The future of medical marijuana is at stake. (World Premiere)
Degenerate Art: The Art and Culture of Glass Pipes
Director: M. Slinger
A true document of the art and culture of glass pipe-making. It is the first film to ever bring to light this invisible sub-culture in a comprehensive and well-informed format. (World Premiere)
Girl Model
Directors: A. Sabin, David Redmon
Young Russian girls join a modeling agency to seek work in Japan, but get caught up in an unregulated system that reveals an unseemly side of the fashion industry. (U.S. Premiere)
Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters
Director: Ben Shapiro
Acclaimed photographer Gregory Crewdson’s 10-year quest to create a series of haunting, surreal, and stunningly elaborate portraits of small-town American life — filmed with unprecedented access as he makes perfect renderings of a disturbing, imperfect world. (World Premiere)
Just Like Being There
Director: Scout Shannon
Through the eyes of Daniel Danger, Jay Ryan, and the gig poster community, Just Like Being There focuses on poster artists, the music they commemorate, MONDO film posters, fans, bloggers, galleries, collectors and everything in between. (World Premiere)
Scarlet Road (Australia)
Director: Catherine Scott
The film follows the extraordinary work of Australian sex worker, Rachel Wotton. Impassioned about freedom of sexual expression and the rights of sex workers, she specializes in a long over-looked clientele - people with disability. (North American Premiere)
Trash Dance
Director: Andrew Garrison
A choreographer finds beauty and grace in garbage trucks, and against the odds, rallies reluctant city trash collectors to perform an extraordinary dance spectacle. On an abandoned airport runway, two dozen sanitation workers -- and their trucks -- inspire an audience of thousands. (World Premiere)
Waiting For Lightning
Director: Jacob Rosenberg
From the producers of Step into Liquid, comes the story of visionary skateboarder Danny Way, who jumped China’s Great Wall and created a new movement in sport. (World Premiere)
Wikileaks: Secrets &amp; Lies (UK)
Director: Patrick Forbes
The in-depth story of Wikileaks told by all the key players. Sulphurous, personal and moving, it documents history in the making at the lawless frontier of new technology and mainstream media. (North American Premiere)
WONDER WOMEN! The Untold Story of American Superheroines
Director: Kristy Guevara-Flanagan
This documentary examines the fascinating evolution and legacy of Wonder Woman and introduces audiences to a dynamic group of real life superheroes who continue to fight the good fight both on and off the screen. (World Premiere)
EMERGING VISIONS
Audacious, risk-taking artists in the new cinema landscape that demonstrate raw innovation and creativity in documentary and narrative filmmaking.
Films screening in Emerging Visions are:
Black Pond (UK)
Directors: Tom Kingsley, Will Sharpe, Screenwriter: Will Sharpe
An ordinary family is accused of murder when a stranger dies at their dinner table. Stars BAFTA-winner Chris Langham and British Comedy Award Winner Simon Amstell. Cast: Chris Langham, Simon Amstell, Amanda Hadingue, Colin Hurley, Will Sharpe (North American Premiere)
Dollhouse (Ireland)
Director/Screenwriter: Kirsten Sheridan
Five street teens break into a house in a rich Dublin suburb for a night of partying. But games are twisted into something more emotional and ultimately out of control through a series of surprising revelations. Cast: Seana Kerslake, Johnny Ward, Kate Stanley Brennan, Shane Curry, Ciaran McCabe (North American Premiere)
Eating Alabama
Director: Andrew Beck Grace
A quest to eat locally becomes a meditation on community, the South and sustainability. Eating Alabama is a story about why food matters. (World Premiere)
Electrick Children
Director/Screenwriter: Rebecca Thomas
Rachel, a 15-year-old fundamentalist Mormon, believes she's had an immaculate conception by listening to rock and roll. She flees to Las Vegas to escape an arranged marriage, seeking answers to her mysterious pregnancy.
Cast: Julia Garner, Rory Culkin, Liam Aiken, Billy Zane (North American Premiere)
Extracted
Director/Screenwriter: Nir Paniry
A scientist is trapped in the memories of a criminal and must solve a crime in order to get back home to his family.
Cast: Sasha Roiz, Dominic Bogart, Jenny Mollen, Nick Jameson, Brad Culver (World Premiere)
Francine (Canada / USA)
Director/Screenwriter: Brian M. Cassidy, Melanie Shatzky
Academy-Award-winner, Melissa Leo, plays Francine, a woman struggling to find her place in a downtrodden lakeside town after leaving behind a life in prison.
Cast: Melissa Leo, Keith Leonard, Victoria Charkut (North American Premiere)
Funeral Kings
Director/Screenwriter: Kevin Mcmanus, Matthew Mcmanus
For three 14-year-old boys at St. Mark's Middle School, it's always a good day for a funeral.
Cast: Dylan Hartigan, Alex Maizus, Jordan Puzzo, Charles Odei, Kevin Corrigan (World Premiere)
Hard Labor (Brazil)
Director/Screenwriter: Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra
Helena prepares to open her own business: a neighborhood grocery store. She hires a maid. But when her husband Octavio is suddenly fired from his job, Helena is left to support the family alone.
Cast: Helena Albergaria, Marat Descartes, Naloana Lima, Marina Flores (U.S. Premiere)
La Camioneta - The Journey of One American School Bus
Director: Mark Kendall
On a 3,000-mile adventure across the borders between the Americas, La Camioneta follows the journey of one out-of-service American school bus as it is repaired, repainted and resurrected into a Guatemalan camioneta. (World Premiere)
The Last Fall
Director/Screenwriter: Matthew A. Cherry
An NFL journeyman struggles to deal with life's complexities after his professional career is over at age 25.
Cast: Lance Gross, Nicole Beharie, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Harry Lennix, Keith David
(World Premiere)
Leave Me Like You Found Me
Director/Screenwriter: Adele Romanski
Big trees, broken hearts. The story of a lovesick couple’s breakup &amp; makeup while camping in the wilds of California. Cast: Megan Boone, David Nordstrom (World Premiere)
PAVILION
Director/Screenwriter: Tim Sutton
Max, a quietly troubled 15-year-old, leaves his lakeside town to live with his father on the sun-blasted fringe of suburban Arizona. What begins in a calm and lush environment ends in a drastic, frayed confusion. Cast: Max Schaffner, Zach Cali, Cody Hamric, Addie Barlett, Aaron Buyea (World Premiere)
Sun Don't Shine
Director/Screenwriter: Amy Seimetz
Two lovers, on the back roads of Florida, do very bad things.
Cast: Kate Lyn Sheil, Kentucker Audley, AJ Bowen, Kit Gwinn, Mark Reeb (World Premiere)
Sunset Stories
Directors: Silas Howard, Ernesto Foronda, Screenwriter: Valerie Stadler
When May returns to LA and runs smack into JP, the man she left behind, past and present collide sending them on a twenty-four hour journey in search of what they lost.
Cast: Monique Curnen, Sung Kang, Joshua Leonard, Mousa Kraish, Michelle Krusiec (World Premiere)
Tchoupitoulas
Director: Bill Ross, Turner Ross
Three young brothers' immersive journey into the sensory wonders of the New Orleans night.
(World Premiere)
Thale (Norway)
Director/Screenwriter: Aleksander L. Nordaas
The film revolves around huldra, a mythical, tailed creature, found by two crime scene cleaners in a concealed cellar. Someone’s been keeping her down here for decades, for reasons soon to surface. Cast: Silje Reinåmo, Jon Sigve Skard, Erlend Nervold, Morten Andresen (North American Premiere)
Wildness
Director/Screenwriter: Wu Tsang
A magical-realist portrait of the Silver Platter, a historic bar in Los Angeles that provides a safe space for Latin/LGBT immigrant and queer art communities to come together in love and conflict.
WOLF
Director/Screenwriter: Ya'ke Smith
A family is shaken to the core when they discover their son has been molested. As they struggle to deal with the betrayal, their son heads towards a total mental collapse.
Cast: Irma P. Hall, Mikala Gibson, Jordan Cooper, Shelton Jolivette, Eugene Lee (World Premiere)
24 BEATS PER SECOND
Showcasing the sounds, culture and influence of music and musicians, with an emphasis on documentary.
Films screening in 24 Beats Per Second are:
Amor Cronico (Cuba / USA)
Director: Jorge Perugorria
Weaving footage of singer Cucu Diamantes’ Cuban tour into a fictional love story. The result is an energetic display of her glamorous and infectious performance style and a fascinating portrait of Cuba today.
Cast: Cucu Diamantes, Adela Legra, Liosky Clavero, Andres Levin, Jorge Perugorria (World Premiere)
Bad Brains: Band in DC
Directors: Mandy Stein, Benjamen Logan
How four young men from DC changed music forever. (World Premiere)
Charles Bradley: Soul of America
Director: Poull Brien
The incredible late-in-life rise of 62-year-old aspiring soul singer Charles Bradley, whose debut album rocketed him from a hard life in the projects to Rolling Stone magazine’s top 50 albums of 2011.
(World Premiere)
Daylight Savings
Director: Dave Boyle, Screenwriters: Dave Boyle, Michael Lerman, Joel Clark, Goh Nakamura
After a devastating breakup, musician Goh Nakamura hits the road with his irresponsible cousin to pursue a promising rebound with fellow musician Yea-Ming Chen.
Cast: Goh Nakamura, Michael Aki, Yea-Ming Chen, Lynn Chen, Ayako Fujitani (World Premiere)
Grandma Lo-fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigrídur Níelsdóttir (Iceland / Denmark)
Director: Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir
At the tender age of 70 she started making music - and then she couldn't stop! A tribute to the Danish/Icelandic artist and late bloomer Sigrídur Níelsdóttir.
Paul Williams Still Alive
Director: Stephen Kessler
A documentary filmmaker tracks down actor/singer/songwriter Paul Williams in an attempt to find out what happened to his idol. (U.S. Premiere)
Rock 'N' Roll Exposed: The Photography of Bob Gruen (UK)
Director: Don Letts
Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry, Yoko Ono, Alice Cooper, Billie Joe Armstrong and others discuss the incredible life and work of the world's foremost rock 'n' roll photographer, Bob Gruen.
(North American Premiere)
Sunset Strip
Director/Screenwriter: Hans Fjellestad
The 100-year history of the loudest street on the planet, The Sunset Strip. (World Premiere)
Under African Skies
Director: Joe Berlinger
Paul Simon returns to South Africa to explore the incredible journey of his historic Graceland album, including the political backlash he received for allegedly breaking the UN cultural boycott of South Africa designed to end the Apartheid regime.
Uprising: Hip Hop &amp; The LA Riots
Director: Mark Ford
20 years after riots ripped through Los Angeles, Uprising documents how hip hop forecasted – and some say ignited – the worst civil unrest of the 20th century. (World Premiere)
SX GLOBAL
A diverse panorama of international filmmaking talent, including premieres, interactive documentaries and shorts.
Films screening in SX Global are:
BIJUKA (India)
Director: Ashtar Sayed, Screenwriter: Dr. Mahendra Purohit
Inspired by a true event. Scarecrow tells the true story of a young woman who is attempting to escape from an abusive arranged marriage. Cast: Arti Rautela, Amit Purohit (North American Premiere)
Crulic - The Path to Beyond (Romania / Poland)
Director: Anca Damian
The animated documentary feature-length “Crulic – The Path to Beyond” tells the story of the life of Crulic, the 33-year-old Romanian who died in a Polish prison while on hunger strike.
Cubaton - El Medico Story (Estonia / Sweden)
Director: Daniel Fridell
El Medico - a Cuban house doctor who wants to become a cubaton star - is facing a serious choice between serving the state and becoming a popstar. (North American Premiere)
Her Master's Voice (UK)
Director: Nina Conti
Watching someone talk to themselves has never been so interesting. (World Premiere)
ITALY LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT (Italy / Germany)
Directors: Gustav Hofer, Luca Ragazzi
Gustav and Luca, two Italians, have to decide: Should they stay in Italy, or leave it? (North American Premiere)
Mustafa's Sweet Dreams (Greece / UK)
Director: Angelos Abazoglou
Mustafa, a 16-year-old pastry shop apprentice dreams of becoming a famous baklava chef in Istanbul. (North American Premiere)
Pompeya (Argentina)
Director: Tamae Garateguy, Screenwriters: Tamae Garateguy, Diego A. Fleischer
When a film director hires two screenwriters to make a gangster movie, a fiction feast starts: femmes fatales, mobs fighting for the same neighborhood and a limitless hero who defies every movie concept. Cast: José Luciano González, Joel Drut, Chang Sung Kim, Vladimir Yuravel, Miguel Forza de Paul
(U.S. Premiere)
¡Vivan las Antipodas! (Germany / The Netherlands / Argentina / Chile)
Director: Victor Kossakovsky
Haven’t we all wondered at some point what was happening just at this moment beneath our very feet at the other side of the planet?
FESTIVAL FAVORITES
Acclaimed standouts and selected previous premieres from festivals around the world.
Films screening in Festival Favorites are:
Beast (Denmark)
Director/Screenwriter: Christoffer Boe
How long will you go, to hold on to the person you love?
Cast: Nicolas Bro, Marijana Jankovic, Nikolaj Lie Kaas
The Comedy
Director: Rick Alverson, Screenwriters: Robert Donne, Colm O'Leary
Indifferent even to the prospects of inheriting his father's estate, Swanson (Tim Heidecker), a desensitized, aging Brooklyn hipster, strays into a series of reckless situations that may offer the promise of redemption or the threat of retribution.
Cast: Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, James Murphy, Kate Lyn-Sheil, Alexia Rassmusen
Dreams of a Life (UK / Ireland)
Director: Carol Morley
An imaginative quest to go beyond the newspaper reports and solve the mystery of who thirty-eight year old Joyce Vincent was and why she lay undiscovered for three years after her death in one of the busiest parts of London. (North American Premiere)
God Bless America
Director/Screenwriter: Bobcat Goldthwait
Loveless, jobless, possibly terminally ill, Frank has had enough of the downward spiral of America. With nothing left to lose, Frank takes his gun and offs the stupidest, cruelest, and most repellent members of society. Cast: Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr (U.S. Premiere)
The Imposter (UK)
Director: Bart Layton
In 1994 a 13-year-old disappears without trace in Texas. Three years later he resurfaces in Spain with accounts of a horrifying kidnap. His family is overjoyed – but all is not as it seems.
Indie Game: The Movie (Canada)
Directors: Lisanne Pajot, James Swirsky
With the twenty-first century comes a new breed of artist: the indie game designer. These innovators design and program their distinctly personal games in the hope that they may find connection and success.
KID-THING
Director/Screenwriter: David Zellner
A fever-dream fable about Annie, a rebellious girl devoid of parental guidance or a moral compass. She roams the countryside looking for adventure, and finds it one day in the form of an abandoned well. Cast: Sydney Aguirre, Susan Tyrrell, Nathan Zellner, David Zellner, David Wingo
Last Call at the Oasis
Director: Jessica Yu
A powerful argument for why the global water crisis will be the central issue facing our world this century.
Lovely Molly
Director: Eduardo Sanchez, Screenwriters: Eduardo Sanchez, Jamie Nash
Exploring the parallels between psychosis, addiction and demonic possession, Lovely Molly tells the story of what really happens before the exorcist arrives.
Cast: Gretchen Lodge, Johnny Lewis, Alexandra Holden (U.S. Premiere)
The Raid (Indonesia)
Director/Screenwriter: Gareth Huw Evans
Rama and his special forces team fight their way through a rundown apartment block with a mission to remove its owner, a notorious drug lord.
Cast: Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Doni Alamsyah, Yayan Ruhian, Pierre Gruno
WE ARE LEGION: The Story of the Hacktivists
Director: Brian Knappenberger
We Are Legion takes us inside the world of Anonymous, the radical "hacktivist" collective that has redefined civil disobedience for the digital age.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Live Soundtracks, cult re-issues and much more. Our Special Events section offers unusual, unexpected and unique film event one-offs.
Films screening in Special Events are:
An Evening With Sacred Bones Records
Director: Jacqueline Castel
Brooklyn-based record label Sacred Bones presents an evening of original and curated programming of music videos, short films, works in progress, and a rare screening of their first film production, Twelve Dark Noons. (World Premiere)
Bernie
Director: Richard Linklater, Screenwriters: Richard Linklater, Skip Hollandsworth
Based on real-life events, this dark comedy follows Bernie Tiede, his recently deceased friend Marjorie Nugent and District Attorney Danny Buck Davidson who is determined to get to the bottom of the crime. Cast: Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey, Brady Coleman, Richard Robichaux
Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me
Director: Drew Denicola
A feature-length documentary about the massive critical acclaim, dismal commercial failure, and enduring legacy of pop music’s greatest cult phenomenon, Big Star. (Work in Progress)
Casa de mi Padre
Director: Matt Piedmont, Screenwriter: Andrew Steele
Will Ferrell plays a Mexican rancher who must defend his father's home against the country's most infamous drug lord. Cast: Will Ferrell, Gael García Vernal, Diego Luna, Genesis Rodriguez, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Nick Offerman
Girl Walk // All Day
Director/Screenwriter: Jacob Krupnick
A feature-length dance music film that combines freestyle dance with the daily chaos of New York City, set to Girl Talk's recent mashup album, All Day. Cast: Anne Marsen, John Doyle, Daisuke Omiya
Re:Generation
Director: Amir Bar Lev
5 DJ's Turn the Table on The History of Music.
Renga (UK)
Directors: Adam Russell, John Sear
A ground breaking feature-length show controlled entirely by the audience using laser pointers. It is the first viable example of a standalone interactive experience capable of running in commercial movie theatres. (North American Premiere)
The Oyster Princess (1919) with original live score by Bee vs. Moth (Germany)
Director: Ernst Lubitsch, Screenriters: Hanns Kraly &amp; Ernst Lubitsch
The Oyster Princess is Ernst Lubitsch’s tart 1919 silent comedy that parodies the rich and the spoiled. Austin jazz/rock band Bee vs. Moth performs their original score live with the film for the first time. (World Premiere)

Judy Greer is one of the few women who's been able to establish herself as one of Hollywood's most versatile comedic presences—so much so that IMDb declares her trademark as "playing the best friend." She's affable, she has timing and she can do pretty much anything, making her the perfect character actor for any situation.
Thankfully, the big players in Hollywood respond to Greer's talent. Branching her out of the obvious typecasting, Alexander Payne cast Greer in his new dramedy The Descendants, where the actresses pops up in pivotal dramatic moments opposite George Clooney. It's easily some of the best work she's ever done.
I had a chance to sit down with Greer to talk about her experience working on Descendants, her return to Two and a Half Men and the handful of other projects she has in the works. But upon entering the room, an spirited Greer beat me to the punch on my own interview...
Judy Greer: I love Alexander! I auditioned for the part!
Oh no, you’re stealing all my questions! Why are you doing that?
JG: It’s fun to talk about a movie that people love.
People do love it.
JG: I know. Did you see it?
Yeah, I saw it. Are you saying that you don’t get to talk about movies that people love very often?
JG: Well, you know. This is different for me.
How did you end up becoming part of the movie?
JG: Good old fashioned audition. He is a director I’ve wanted to work with forever. So, when this came up, I went in for it, and obviously got the part. I’ve had a couple auditions, and sometimes at my agency, they’ll organize table reads of scripts for directors and actors. One time I did a table read with Al Pacino.
For what?
JG: A movie that they never made. He wanted to hear it out loud. A lot of those guys like to do a table read of a script to decide if they want to do it. In that situation, I thought to myself, 'I got to act with Al Pacino. That’s kind of awesome.' And in this situation, I’m like, 'I got to act with Alexander Payne.' You know? Even just the audition was enough for me.
You got to kiss George Clooney.
JG: I mean, that came much later. But that was awesome.
Do you find it difficult to track down parts that are our of the norm like this? Are they roles you're actively looking for?
JG: Thankfully, knock on wood, my career has never felt like a struggle. I’ve always been really blessed. I work all the time, and I get to move within the—I’m like undercover. Oh, I’m on this giant television show! And I’m doing this little indie movie! And I’m in an Alexander Payne film! Oh, I’m doing a voice on a cartoon! It’s been so awesome that way. In the bigger studio projects, it has been hard to get outside of my quirky sidekick persona. I don’t mind playing those roles at all.
We like you when you do that.
JG: I like it. It’s fun! It’s a fun day at work. Trust me. But this has been something so different and awesome.
What I like about this movie is that there are a lot of characters and they each get their shining moments. They may not get a ton of screen time, but they all feel like real people. Did it feel that way in the script? How did you develop this character?
JG: It’s definitely in the script. I want to say it’s in the book. I read the book after I got the part, but I haven’t read it since. I focused more on the script. But it’s very rare to get the size of roles that I always play…be so well-rounded on the page. A lot of times I get a script and they’re like, 'We know you’re going to do something awesome with this.' And I’m like, 'I’d rather you did something awesome with it!' But in this situation, it was a character with a complete journey in three scenes. So, yeah. I didn’t have to do much.
And what’s the dynamic between you and Alexander? You and George?
JG: The dynamic between George and me…I’ve known him for a while now. I worked with him on Three Kings a hundred years ago.
We don’t talk about that movie enough. A great film.
JG: Well, it’s been a while. It’s so good. It felt very comforting to have George there, because I knew him. And because these scenes were tough and hard. To just feel really comfortable with someone was helpful to me as an actor. And I was so incredibly nervous around Alexander. I don’t think I could have handled it [if I had] not met George before either. To be in the room with both of them? I don’t know, I probably would have exploded. I was so nervous and star-struck by A.P., as his friends call him. I was like, 'Thank God for George! Thank God I’m not at all nervous around George Clooney, for some reason!'
I wish we could all be that way. Being one of these big stars, it's hard to get a grasp of what working with him must be like. I’m sure some people would paint him as the guy who comes to work, does his scenes and keeps away from everyone.
JG: No. He likes to hang out. He’s the first person on set. He’s fun, he’s sweet, he learns everyone’s name. Everything you hear about him is exactly true. We did this table read in Santa Monica before they started production. Everyone was there. All the heads of Fox Searchlight, all the producers, all the actors. It was really scary. Alexander made this awesome speech, this amazing speech, about how he cast us because of who we were. 'Do what you’ve done, be yourself.'
And then George said, 'I’m really excited to do this movie, and I think Judy had something that she wanted to say to everybody.' [And I’m like,] “I did?!” And everyone laughed at it totally broke the ice in a way that only George really can do.
What was it like working in Hawaii? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie that puts Hawaii out there—as a real place, rather than a tourist destination.
JG: That was one of the things that Alexander said was the reason he was drawn to the project. He said, 'I wanted to show Honolulu and Hawaii as not a vacation destination.' As a place where people live and struggle and make ends meet and fuck up their lives. And for me, I was shooting another movie at the same time in New Orleans. And that movie took place over the course of one day. So, when I would leave to go to Hawaii to shoot this movie, they’d be like, 'Don’t fucking get tan.' And I’m like, 'Are you kidding me? You’re sending me off to Kauai and I can’t get tan?' So then I would go and splatter myself with sunscreen and put on a hat and sit and stare at the ocean. Making a movie in Hawaii is amazing, and it’d be way more amazing if when I went to hair and makeup every day, they didn’t have to cover my whole body in makeup. I’d be so paranoid. 'I think I got a freckle! Oh God!'
Did you learn anything about Hawaii that is not evident, just by existing there for a few days?
JG: I did learn that sometimes, one of the local girls told me, if the surf is really awesome, they don’t even bother to have the first class of the day at school, because none of the kids show up anyway. I went to this Hawaiian bar that I wanted to check out after work one day. It said it opened at four. I sat there, and it didn’t open, didn’t open…it was about five o’clock, and the waitress showed up. She was like, 'Yeah, the surf was really good.' Right on!
Going back to working with Alexander. He’s a prolific guy, with the few films that he’s made. They all have this wonderful tone. A wonderful balance between comedy and drama. I imagine that’s a really difficult thing to find, or at least to be explained to you. Can you talk a little about working with him and the dialogue there? Finding that tone?
JG: Like I said, he seems to cast people for who they are. He casts your tone when he puts you in the movie. So you don’t have to struggle to please him, to help him find his vision. Because he wouldn’t—he doesn’t have to put people in the movie…
I’ve also been watching Two and a Half Men this season,
JG: Oh, yeah! I know!
You and Ashton have a great dynamic, but then I saw the movie and I was like, 'These couldn’t be more different.'
JG: I know. So weird.
What is it like coming back to the show [Greer had previously appeared in two episodes of Men as a different character]?
JG: It’s been fun to be a part of that. My sweetheart was like, 'Do you realize that this is like…'—it doesn’t feel like it, because I’m in it, and I have to shut down that part of my brain that can make me totally freaked out—but he’s like, 'You know that this is one of the hugest moments in television history.' He’s like, 'When this show airs,' and I wasn’t in the first episode, I was in the second, 'everyone’s going to be watching. People are going to be talking about this forever.' And I’m like, 'Well, shut up! You’ll make me crazy!' And the night before my first episode aired, my manager was like, 'More people are going to watch you tomorrow night than have ever seen you before, ever.' I’m like, 'Fuck! I should have gone to manicure school.'
But it’s been fun to be a part of that. It’s a part of history in a way. It’s a part of our culture. It’s kind of weird and depressing, but it’s true. And you can’t deny that it’s a big deal. To be a part of it has been special. To be working with Ashton again…he produced a television show I did a hundred years ago. And so now I get to act with him. I respect him a lot. He’s cool.
What’s the environment like? I imagine it’s a fun show to shoot.
JG: It’s really fun! The energy is great. He’s great. Jon Cryer is so awesome. He’s so lovely. And it’s cool to be in front of an audience again. I really like that. I love being in front of an audience. That’s how I started—in the theater. That energy that you get from them, and the excitement that they have. And, you know, the food is great. Craft services is awesome.
Yes! Such a good spread. Do you think you’d ever go back to the theater?
JG: I do want, so badly, to do a play. I’d love to do a play on Broadway. I’ve never done that before. Every time I say to my manager and agent, 'I want to do a play,' they’re like, 'Oh, we just got a movie for you.”' But I did something off-Broadway a few years ago and the experience was so incredible.
Nothing beats live.
JG: It’s fun, you know? It’s the best acting class you’ll ever do. The feeling that you have when you’re driving home from work shooting something, and you’re like, 'Ugh, why didn’t I do that?' You can do 'that' the next day! You absolutely get a second chance. So, that’s fun.
My TV cohorts would be very sad if I didn’t ask a little about Archer.
JG: I know. It’s insane.
What's your experience like working on this deranged, wonderful animated show?
JG: The pilot episode…I was in Arizona working on something else at the time, and they were like, “'You have a day off. We got you this thing. It’s a voiceover thing.' And I was like, 'Okay, cool, whatever.' You know, it’s no money, and I wanted to break into doing voices and stuff. That’s a really tight-knit group. A very exclusive club. And it’s hard to get into it.
Yeah. Jon Benjamin’s pretty much dominating.
JG: Yeah, I know! So, I was like, 'I want to do that.' And I’m shooting on set all day, and I’m so tired, and my next day is my day off, and I’m like, 'Ugh, I don’t want to fucking record something. It’s my day off. I just want to sleep and sleep and sleep and go for a run.' And then I read the script. I’m like falling asleep in bed, and then I’m like, 'Wait, what?! What is this for? This is for FX? You can’t say—this is never going to get picked up! We can’t do that on television!' Even though I think they did all that on Rescue Me.
But it’s just been such a fun ride. Every week I get excited. I should say, probably more like every two or three weeks now. I get super excited to get the script. It’s always something better than the last. I’m constantly in awe and amazed by [creator] Adam Reed. He does all of it all by himself. He has no writer’s room. It’s insane. I love him so much. I asked him to write a live-action television show for me this year.
Is that going to happen?
JG: He said that he would…
Aww!
JG: …and then his manager said he couldn’t, because he was too busy doing Archer. [Laughs] So hopefully, I’ll get him—maybe he could just write a movie or something. I think he’s such a talent.
We would all enjoy that.
JG: An Archer movie! How awesome would that be? Start that rumor!
What’s next for you?
JG: I have a couple of movies coming out. And I’m developing a television show that Adam couldn’t write. But I have other awesome writers that are working on it.
Is it your idea?
JG: Mm-hmm!
What is the show?
JG: It’s a pilot. I’m going to keep it a secret for now, because I don’t want to jinx it. Not that I don’t want you to know! But I have superstitions about this stuff. At this point, I just sold an idea with Deb Kaplan and Harry Elfont, who are feature film writers—they’re writing it. We’re hopefully going to actually shoot the pilot. I don’t know yet. I also obviously do Archer, and I have some more Two and a Half Mens coming up. Yay! Pay the bills! And I have two movies coming out in the spring. One is called Jeff Who Lives at Home which is really good. I saw a screening of it a few weeks ago. I’m super proud of it. Tiny, sweet, compassionate lovely little film. And a great, big, giant, huge studio romantic comedy called Playing the Field with Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel and Catherine Zeta Jones and Uma Thurman and Dennis Quaid and me. And that was awesome. And I was in Shreveport. Gabriele Muccino directed that. He was also on my list of directors I always wanted to work with. He’s awesome.
Perfect!
JG: Yeah. He’s very loud and very Italian. It was really fun.
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Best of Seven: June 28 - July 4
Welcome to a new week, friends. This week is the first week of the rest of your lives. So let's see what's on TV, right? Here's the Best of Seven:
Monday
7:30PM: Seinfeld, TBS. "The Butter Shave." Jerry and George's attempt to "take a vacation from ourselves" by growing mustaches fails; Kramer experiments with butter as a moisturizer, awakening a cannibalistic hunger in Newman.
9PM: Entourage, HBO. This is Sex in the City for guys. If you missed the 7th season premiere Sunday night, drop by HBO2 on Monday to see Vince, Drama, Ari, and the rest as they suffer the indignities of wealth, women, and all the attendant ennui.
Tuesday
10PM: Rescue Me, FX. If you're a fan of Denis Leary's Emmy award-winning, emotionally intense firefighter drama, make sure to catch the sixth season opener, "Legacy." If you haven't seen Rescue Me before, now might be a good time to start.
11PM: Louie, FX. The spiritual successor of HBO's Lucky Louie. Comedian Louis C.K. debuts the first episode of his new half-hour show, based on his experiences as a stand-up comic, plus a healthy dose of Curb Your Enthusiasm-esque sad-sack pratfalling.
Wednesday
8PM: So You Think You Can Dance, FOX. Do you think you like dance? If you do, you'll probably enjoy this show, if you're not watching already. American Idol is over, so you might as well tune in. Only nine contestants remain!
10PM: The Real World: New Orleans, MTV. There are few shows on television that are less like the 'real world,' which is exactly this MTV staple's appeal. Can you believe this season's premiere in New Orleans marks the show's 24th incarnation? For over 18 years now we have watched house after house of walking stereotypes approximating real human beings drink, fight, and screw. Expect nothing different for no. 24.
Thursday
9PM: Enchanted, SyFy. An animated Disney princess turns into Amy Adams and is seduced by some Grey's Anatomy doctors in this smart 2007 musical comedy. You'll enjoy it more than you think.
10PM: Futurama, Comedy Central. In case you didn't hear the news, Futurama has been uncanceled and is now on Comedy Central! In "Attack of the Killer App," an unflattering video of Leela makes the rounds online, thanks to Fry.
Friday
8PM: Friday Night Lights, NBC. Everyone I know seems to like this show. I'm going to start watching it and you should too! Or, switch over to Space Jam on Encore, starring the unlikely comedy stylings of Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny.
11PM: Freaks and Geeks, IFC. The Independent Film Channel will begin airing the Judd Apatow-produced comedy-drama this Friday, starting with the pilot episode, which introduces us to Lindsay Weir, a disaffected teen who loses interest in academics and begins hanging out with a crew of burnouts that includes Seth Rogen, James Franco, and Jason Segel.
Saturday
8PM: Men In Black, TBS. Revisit the movie that helped launch Will Smith into super-stardom and prepare for the upcoming Men In Black 3 (in 3D, natch). Tommy Lee Jones co-stars in this tale of a top-secret organization that keeps tabs on all of the alien refugees living on Earth, and must help maintain intergalactic peace.
11PM: Point Break, TNT. Keanu Reeves goes undercover as a California surfer dude to solve a string of bank robberies in this 1991 cult flick, also starring Gary Busey and Patrick Swayze. Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) directs.
Sunday
9PM: Dave Chappelle: Killin' Them Softly, Comedy Central. This is Chappelle's best standup special, hands down. Features the comedian's take on politics, Sesame Street, gender, and race. Bonus: extensive use of Dave's hilarious 'white guy' voice.
11PM: Casino Royale, USA. Forget all about Quantum of Solace with the film that revitalized the franchise and brought us one of the best Bonds in decades. Daniel Craig stars in this smart thriller, with Bad Guys and Bond Girls aplenty.

Before the days of "Jersey Shore," the MTV reality series everyone watched to see the binge drinking, the one-night stands and weird telephones was "The Real World." And even though we've only spent one season down in Dirty Jerz, the nights we fought on the boardwalk and fist-pumped with neon glow sticks obliterated even the greatest hot tub scenes of the "Shore's" predecessor.
But MTV isn't about to abandon "RR," because it's an idea that's worked for eighteen years. It certainly isn't going to discontinue the show just because a tanner, Valtrex-medicated, duck-phone-answering, "GTL"-heavy (and an arguably, much more entertaining) show has emerged. In fact, it means producers are going to try and bring some of the shore's hot mess to New Orleans, which happens to be where the 24th season of "RR" will take place. (Though some could argue the Big Easy needs more "hot mess" as much as a worm needs his wisdom teeth pulled out.) In any case, this season of "The Real World," which premieres on June 30th, will do one of two things: re-establish itself as the best dirty docu-reality of them all, or will be shoved into a hole where it can officially die and make room for it's prettier, smarter, more well-loved cousin.
To see what we're up against this season, let's have a look at the trailer:
Real World XXIV: New Orleans - MTV Shows
So. A few familiarities quickly jump out at us. First, there's sexual promiscuity. We assume this when one of the roommates says "penis" within 5 seconds of the preview's opening. We also have two (blurred) sightings of male genitalia, a girl taking her top off in the jacuzzi and another girl (maybe the same one?) flashing her chest during a Mardi Gras parade. Then, there's the character generalizations: "Knight" is the village idiot who eats a bug off of the pool table the first night, "Preston" fulfills the homosexual status quo, "Kensy" plays the role of the skanky yet judgmental blonde, "Jemmye" is the dumb girl with the even dumber name, the outcast, "Ryan," who asks one of his new roommates if she's ever killed somebody, and two other people who I'm going to deem unimportant.
Now, onto the new things we might be able to expect this season. While this is certainly not the first season MTV has sent seven or eight strangers to live in a city known for partying (Cancun in 2009, Key West in 2006, Las Vegas in 2002/2003, and even New Orleans back in 2000), its choice to go back to New Orleans -- especially during Mardi Gras -- seems like the producers are encouraging the housemates to ignore their consciences and do absolutely anything and everything they want during their time there, which is new. In previous seasons, there have been times when producers stepped in and took a housemate to rehab (most recently in the Hollywood season), but I feel like they're going to keep their distance this time. It's more likely they'll sit in their control room and watch the cast engage in dangerous behaviors and not intervene, under the reasoning that it's just the "New Orleans scene."
Also, there's something about Ryan "the outcast" that stands out to me. Again, "RR" producers have never been afraid of throwing a shark into a coy pond...but Ryan seems to make every other weirdo in the history of the show look like a golden retriever puppy. He seems preoccupied with death, a complete loner, and so uninterested in everything going on around him that it's kind of a shock he even got cast in the first place. His private and dark personality is bound to offend his vivacious roommates, who are hell-bent on exposing themselves and getting as many beaded necklaces as they can. It's no secret Ryan's going to clash with all of them. And since everyone knows it only takes one bad-tasting jellybean to ruin the entire JellyBelly package, it should be pretty obvious this season's going to taste worse than most of the others. And by "worse" I mean enjoyable and entertaining, like the popcorn-flavored jellybean.
Source: HollywoodReporter

2004 had its fair share of highs and lows. Celebrities like to live life in the fast lane so there's been no shortage of wild entertainment news to report.
Right from the beginning of the year, major stories continually rolled in. Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck ended their turbulent engagement in January, while the following month Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman announced their marriage was over. But, like the silver lining of every cloud, some of Hollywood's finest tied the knot this year: Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid and Robert Evans all walked down the aisle with their loved ones, while Diane Lane and Josh Brolin married each other. Clearly believing there's no time like the present, J.Lo secretly wed Marc Anthony in June.
2004 also saw the passing of several legends, including Sir Peter Ustinov, Ronald Reagan, Fay Wray, Russ Meyer, Janet Leigh, Rodney Dangerfield and Superfly star Ron O'Neal. But it was Marlon Brando's death in July that garnered the most headlines.
Away from the big screen, three of television's most popular shows all ended within the space of a few weeks of each other. Many fans were left fearing the world would be a lonelier place without the likes of Friends, Frasier and Sex and the City.
But it's difficult to sum up a year in a few sentences, so read on and reminisce on the eventful 12 months that made up 2004.
January
The year began with the heart-warming announcement that Dawson's Creek actress Katie Holmes and American Pie star Chris Klein became engaged over the 2003 Christmas break. At the time, the couple had been dating for four years and decided not to set a date for their nuptials.
Actress Chloe Sevigny had a more pressing start to her year, which she began by rubbishing reports she was dumped by the William Morris Agency after performing a sex act on screen--saying it was she who ended their association. The 29-year-old star shocked critics and audiences alike with her performance in Vincent Gallo's movie Brown Bunny, in which she is seen giving the controversial filmmaker oral sex. But Sevigny insists that, despite the media storm, she made the decision to end her eight-year business relationship with the firm.
Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin escaped a public rebuke from Australia's child welfare officials after dangling his one month-old baby dangerously close to a crocodile in a stunt on New Year's Day. The incident at Australia Zoo prompted a storm of controversy, but Irwin insists his son, Bob, was never in danger. The animal expert-turned-TV star was interviewed by the Office of Workplace Health and Safety, who concluded there wasn't enough evidence to suggest he violated any safety regulations.
Angelina Jolie started 2004 by angrily hitting out at claims her adopted Cambodian son Maddox may have been illegally taken from his birth mother. American police shut down the Seattle international Adoptions Inc agency--which the Tomb Raider star used to adopt--following concerns it paid mothers as little as $119 to give up their children, rather than "rescuing" them from orphanages, as claimed. Jolie said, "I would never rob a mother of her child. I can only imagine how dreadful that would feel. If a parent survived then I would want Maddox to meet them--but I have not seen any evidence."
Love was in town for Stuck on You co-stars Matt Damon and Eva Mendes, who ended months of media speculation over their relationship when they joined pals Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez to see in the New Year in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Orlando Bloom began 2004 in a similar manner--by confirming he was dating actress Kate Bosworth. At the time, The Lord of the Rings hunk had been dating 21-year-old Bosworth for some months, but had refused to discuss their romance. But, Bloom announced, "I'm in love with love. It's heavenly when you're falling for someone and you can't stop thinking about her."
The story of the month had to be the news Affleck and Lopez were ending their high-profile romance. The stars, who cancelled their September 2003 wedding blaming an intrusive press made their privacy impossible, split amid persistent rumours they were growing apart.
Kate Hudson and her rocker husband Chris Robinson were celebrating on Jan. 7 after becoming first-time parents. The actress gave birth to baby boy Ryder Russell in Los Angeles. Elsewhere, Cameron Diaz categorically denied she would wed lover Justin Timberlake in 2004, hoping her comments would end the media circus surrounding the couple's relationship.
Actor and writer Spalding Gray went missing on Jan. 11. The Killing Fields star's body was found washed up on the Brooklyn side of New York's East River on Mar. 7. He had committed suicide by jumping off the city's Staten Island ferry.
An ex-boyfriend of Halle Berry stepped forward to accuse Wesley Snipes of being her abusive ex-lover, who struck the Catwoman star so hard, she lost most of the hearing in her right ear. R&amp;B singer Christopher Williams--who dated Berry in the early 1990s--made the startling accusation against the Blade star after getting upset with the number of people who assumed it was him who dealt the screen beauty the damaging blow.
Nicole Kidman ditched her lover Lenny Kravitz amid reports of his infidelity. The Cold Mountain beauty had been dating the rock wildman for eight months but was horrified to hear he had been spotted romancing Brazilian artist Isis Arruda and actress Michelle Rodriguez behind her back.
Veteran actor Carmine Caridi admitted lending his screener copies of
February's Oscar contenders to a friend who put them online. The Godfather:
Part III star, 70, later told investigators he sent VHS copies of approximately
60 films per year to pal Russell Sprague who converted them onto the DVD
format. Caridi insists he had no idea that Sprague would distribute the films
via the internet and had sent them to him because he believed they were for the
51-year-old's personal entertainment. Caridi became the first person to be
expelled from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for his part in
the affair. In November he was fined $300,000. The US District Court
in Los Angeles imposed two fines of $150,000 each on Caridi, one for
The Last Samurai and one for Mystic River, after studio Warner Bros filed a
lawsuit.
Animation giants Pixar and Walt Disney ended their record-breaking
partnership this month, despite the international success of films including
Finding Nemo, Toy Story and Monsters Inc. Pixar chief executive Steve Jobs said
the company decided to end its distribution deal with Disney, after its request
for a greater percentage of the profits was declined.
January saw the passing of Superfly star Ron O'Neal, who died after a long
battle with cancer. The blaxploitation legend was 66. Renowned fashion
photographer Helmut Newton also died this month, in a car crash in Los Angeles.
He was 83. Newton reportedly lost control of his Cadillac car after leaving
Hollywood's Chateau Marmont hotel and crashed into a wall.
February
February began with Jamie Foxx being placed on two years probation after
pleading guilty to charges of fighting with security guards at a New Orleans,
Louisiana, casino in April 2003. The actor and comedian entered a disturbing
the peace plea on and also received a $1,500 fine. It was to be a
good year for Foxx, however, with movie hits in Collateral and Ray.
A new biography claimed four-times Oscar winner Katharine Hepburn had affairs
with Judy Garland, Greta Garbo and other A-list ladies. Author Darwin Porter
wrote in the book Katharine The Great that Hepburn, who died in June 2003, was
busy romancing both men and women during her younger years.
Meanwhile, Mel Gibson was slammed as "ignorant" and "insensitive" for
defending his dad over his view that the Holocaust has been exaggerated. Gibson
stated his unwavering support for Hutton Gibson during a magazine interview,
even though his father has previously rubbished the belief six million Jews
were exterminated by Nazi Germany during World War II. Gibson acknowledged the
Holocaust happened, but said, "I love (my dad). So I'll slug it out, until my
heart is black and blue, if anyone ever tries to hurt him." But it was Gibson's
The Passion of the Christ which caused the most controversy for the Lethal
Weapon star in February. In the weeks leading up to its release, The Passion was criticized by many religious leaders for supposedly blaming Jews
for Jesus' crucifixion. However, on its release, the film--about the final 12
hours of Jesus' life--went on to become a surprise box office smash, taking
$23.6 million on its opening day alone.
Actor and murder suspect Robert Blake's ongoing legal problems continued this
month, when his third attorney, Thomas Mesereau, quit because of
"irreconcilable differences". The news was unwelcome for Blake, standing trial
for the murder of his actress wife Bonny Lee Bakley, who was fatally shot while
sitting in a car outside Studio City, California eatery Vitello's following a
meal with her husband in 2001. Mesereau ended 2004 by representing Michael
Jackson in another one of the most high-profile legal battles of the year.
It came to light in February that Nicole Kidman had been given the all-clear
following a breast cancer scare the previous month. The Oscar-winning beauty,
36, was sent for further tests after doctors spotted a suspicious area during a
routine check-up, but fortunately was found to be in perfect health.
Liza Minnelli's and David Gest's divorce became increasingly bitter
throughout February. First, Gest asked Minnelli to take a lie detector test, in
a bid to prove she beat him up during drunken rages. Then, he appeared on
news show Dateline and showed interviewer Stone Phillips 'claw' marks
he claimed Minnelli had left on his stomach, and asked, "See those finger
marks?"
Hotel heiress Paris Hilton filed a $28.8 million lawsuit
against an internet company for showing her explicit sex-tape on the web. The
22-year-old slapped the lawsuit on Kahatani Ltd, claiming a violation of
privacy over the film which shows her having sex with former boyfriend Rick
Salomon. The tape--which surfaced on the website in November 2003--was made
when Hilton was 19.
Kiefer Sutherland was rushed to hospital to receive six stitches after his
face was slashed during a bar fight. The 24 star was left disfigured following
the brawl in Los Angeles--forcing the show's bosses to delay filming while his
face heals. Sutherland's publicist said the star was "defending himself".
Also this month, Ethan Hawke confirmed his marriage to Uma Thurman was over
for good and that they'd filed for divorce. The couple split in 2003.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered officials to stop granting
gay wedding licences in San Francisco. The Terminator star ordered
the clampdown after a judge decided not to impose a restraining order on
same-sex marriages. Before he could, though, Rosie O'Donnell married her lesbian
lover Kelli Carpenter in the city.
Former boxing champ Mike Tyson agreed to plead guilty to disorderly conduct
instead of assault for his part in a New York hotel brawl in 2003. Tyson agreed
to 100 hours of community service--lecturing, training and instructing at
Gleeson's boxing gym in Brooklyn--and to undergo counselling.
Hit medical drama ER axed a two-second slot featuring an elderly woman's bust
following the outrage sparked by Janet Jackson's Super Bowl breast exposure.
Jackson caused a nationwide scandal when she revealed one of her bosoms during
her performance with Justin Timberlake at American football final on Feb. 1. ER wasn't the only victim of censorship as the result of the 'nipplegate' furore. The Oscars, which took place on Feb. 29, were broadcast with a five-second delay. However, ceremony producer Joe Roth promised nominees the planned delay in the telecast would not be used to cull any controversial political remarks.
March
Blake Edwards kicked off March by slamming Academy Awards bosses for placing a
five-second delay on the live TV broadcast. The Breakfast at Tiffany's
filmmaker, who picked up an honorary Oscar on Feb. 29 for his
long-standing movie career, was irritated America's moral guardians had reacted
to Janet Jackson's breast-baring at the previous month's Super Bowl. Edwards
said, "It's such hypocrisy. I really don't see how you can run Sex and the
City, and then turn around and raise this kind of fuss."
The legal woes of troubled actor Robert Blake continued unabated in March as
he appeared with his fourth lawyer, M. Gerald Schwartzbach, at a preliminary
hearing to answer charges he murdered his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley.
Steven Seagal's lawyers wanted to be released from representing him this
month. The attorneys defending the Under Siege star from a $60 million civil suit brought by former business partner Julius Nasso filed papers in New York asking to be let loose from the case.
Elsewhere, a judge threw out a claim by Sony Pictures that it be
allowed to use remarks by a non-existent critic to promote films including A
Knight's Tale. The argument, presented by Sony's lawyers--that adverts with
fake quotes are protected by freedom of speech--was dismissed. The
controversial case was filed by filmgoers against the Hollywood studio after a
2001 Newsweek article uncovered fake critic David Manning, who'd written
favourable 'reviews' for movies including Vertical Limit and Hollow Man.
Oscar winner Charlize Theron broke down in tears after former South African
President Nelson Mandela praised her for putting their country on the map. The
actress, who picked up the Best Actress Oscar for her role as a
serial-killing prostitute in Monster in February, was guest of honour at the
Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg.
Scottish actor Alan Cumming slammed President George W Bush's stance on
gay marriage--branding him "out of step" with public opinion. The openly
bisexual X2:X-Men United star, who lives in America, was horrified to hear Bush's plans
to outlaw the practice and urged liberal-minded Americans to use their vote
this year to oust him in November's presidential election.
Pamela Anderson was celebrating after being paid staggering $250,000
advance to pen her first novel, Star.
Newlywed Kate Winslet stunned Inside The Actor's Studio host James Lipton by
breaking down in tears while talking about life with husband Sam Mendes and their new son, Joe. In an interview broadcast in March, but recorded weeks after giving birth to the couple's first child together in December 2003, Winslet was clearly overcome by her emotions as she talked about how happy the American Beauty director had made her. She gushed, "I had a baby. His father is Sam Mendes. He is a wonderful... I will start crying in a minute because I'm so emotional because we just had the baby."
The Passion of the Christ star Jim Caviezel had a private meeting with Pope
John Paul II on Mar. 15. The religious Caviezel, who plays Jesus Christ in the
controversial Mel Gibson-directed epic, was reportedly blessed by the pontiff
during a brief meeting at the Vatican in Rome, Italy.
A Canadian man accused of stalking German supermodel Claudia Schiffer was
deported from Britain. Louis Alexandre Brisette, 21, was arrested after
repeatedly calling at the mansion Schiffer shares with filmmaker husband
Matthew Vaughn and their one-year-old son Caspar in Bury St Edmunds, England.
Unemployed Brisette appeared in court on Mar. 13 to face harassment charges
but returned to Schiffer's house just hours later, police said. On Mar. 14,
cops arrested Brisette at the hotel he was staying at in Bury St Edmunds and
handed him over to immigration officers.
Catherine Zeta-Jones failed in her bid to prevent a businessman from running
his company close to her new home in Swansea, Wales. The Oscar winner was
furious when she discovered Steve Gwynn planned to run his telecommunications
business near her lavish property, and had gained permission to use a garage
which is situated on the same estate as her house.
Actor Paul Reubens agreed to register as a sex offender for three years as
part of a plea bargain to remove charges of child pornography from his record.
The child porn charges against Pee-Wee Herman's alter-ego were dismissed after
the actor confessed to a separate misdemeanour obscenity charge. Under the
terms of the plea agreement, Reubens also agreed to pay a $100 fine and
to enter a counselling program for a year. He launched an appeal to clear
this name in April.
Hollywood beauty Sharon Stone became a single woman again in March when her
divorce from newspaper editor Phil Bronstein was finalized. The Basic Instinct
actress, 46, and the San Francisco Chronicle editor split in July 2003, with
Bronstein citing "irreconcilable differences".
The entertainment world was in shock this month, when Tom Cruise and Penelope
Cruz announced they'd split up after less than three years together. The
glamorous pair met on the set of the 2001 film Vanilla Sky as Cruise's marriage
to Nicole Kidman fell apart, and they began dating publicly in July 2001.
Cruise's sister and publicist Lee Anne DeVette confirmed the couple "broke up
at the end of January and it's amicable".
Hollywood actor Jason Patric was arrested after a drunken encounter with
police in Austin, Texas, at the end of the month. Patric was booked on
misdemeanour charges of public intoxication and resisting arrest. He was taken
to the Travis County Jail and released five hours later. A few days later
Patric launched a blistering counterattack on police, claiming he was assaulted
without motive. The charge of resisting arrest was dropped in May.
Acting legend Peter Ustinov died in Switzerland on Mar. 28. He was 82.
Ustinov's acting career spanned more than 60 years--including Academy Awards
for two supporting roles in Spartacus (1961) and Topkapi (1965).
April
Not an April Fool's joke, but the month started with the news California
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had enrolled on a training course which teaches
attendees how to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. Schwarzenegger,
who at the time still faced 16 accusations of sexual harassment from women, had
voluntarily attended the two-hour seminar along with many of his senior staff
shortly after taking office, his spokesperson said.
Jennifer Lopez mother Guadalupe won a staggering $2.4 million on a Wheel of Fortune gambling machine in an Atlantic City, New Jersey, casino. The elder Lopez scooped the prize from just a $3 stake at the city's Borgato Casino.
Will &amp; Grace star Debra Messing became a mother on 8 April, when she gave birth to a baby boy.
New York radio disc-jockey Howard Stern was dropped by Clear Channel Communications in
April, after the American media giant was fined $495,000 fine for indecency following a foul-mouthed interview with Paris Hilton's ex-lover Rick Salomon. Stern had been suspended from broadcasting on the network's six stations following the "vulgar and insulting" February interview, but was removed as a result of the size of the fine. Stern found an ally in comedian Chris Rock, who launched a furious attack on the indecency craze sweeping America this month, labeling the furor "sad". Rock criticized the harsh laws that have took Stern off the air, and believes America overreacted to Janet Jackson's nipple flashing stunt at the Super Bowl in February.
Quentin Tarantino was reprimanded by producers of hit TV talent show American
Idol on April 13, when he used a swear word to describe his thoughts about a
contestant. Red-faced TV bosses had to reshoot guest judge Tarantino's reaction
to singer Latoya London's performance so the show didn't feature his expletive
when it aired on April 14. The usually live telecast was cancelled at the last
minute when chiefs at Fox TV decided to air a live broadcast by President
George W. Bush's instead. Regular judge Paula Abdul says, "He said 'I have three
words for you LaToya: F**king power house.'"
Mystery surrounded Kevin Spacey's "mugging" in a south London park at 4.30 a.m.
on April 17. The Usual Suspects star told police he had been attacked and had
his mobile phone stolen while walking his dog. However, after reporting the
crime and receiving hospital attention for a minor head injury, Spacey returned
to the police station to withdraw his claim. Spacey explained, "I fell for a
con and I was, I think, incredibly embarrassed by it. Some sob story about
someone needing to call their mother and could they use my phone. This kid
took off and I ran after him and it was 4 a.m. and I tripped up over my dog and I
ended up falling onto the street and hitting myself in the head."
And basketball star Dennis Rodman was placed under heavy restriction on the
road, after pleading no contest to a drunk driving charge in a Las Vegas court.
A judge fined Rodman $1,000, ordered him to serve 30 days of home
detention, and required him to use a device in Nevada which will measure his
blood-alcohol content before he can start his car for the next year--to
prevent him from driving after drinking alcohol.
Cosmetics impresario Estee Lauder died of a heart attack on April 24. She was 97.
May
The actors who voice Homer and Bart on The Simpsons were delighted at the
beginning of May, when they were awarded a huge pay rise. Dan Castellaneta and
Nancy Cartwright--who voice Homer and Bart respectively--won their battle
with TV bosses at 20th Century Fox Television to be paid $8 million each for the 22-episode 2004-05 season.
Anna Nicole Smith was banished from shock jock Howard Stern's New York radio
studio on May 4 after turning up with a TV crew and demanding an apology. The
busty blonde had hoped to film the DJ's apology after he poked fun at her
weight during a 2002 interview. But, not only did Stern refuse to say sorry, he
kicked Smith and her reality TV crew out of his studio.
The same day, supermodel Heidi Klum gave birth to a baby girl called Leni.
Klum split with the child's father, Formula One boss Flavio Briatore earlier in
the year, and later hooked up with her current beau, Seal.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell was celebrating after the British High Court ruled
her privacy was invaded when the Daily Mirror newspaper published photographs
of her leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. The London-born catwalk queen's
lawyers claimed the article breached her confidence and was an invasion of
privacy.
Tough guy actor Tom Sizemore's legal problems swarmed around him this month.
Firstly, a former assistant sued the actor for allegedly forcing her to hide
his drugs and trying to have sex with him. Then, the Saving Private Ryan star
was accused of violating his probation terms, imposed for abusing his former
fianceé Heidi Fleiss, after reportedly tested "dirty" for methamphetamine in
March. His spokesperson immediately dismissed claims he'd tested positive for
the drug as "bogus".
Two of America's most beloved sitcoms came to an end in May. For many, both
Friends and Frasier left a hole that couldn't be filled. Frasier enjoyed an
hour-long finale with a show of stars. The regular cast was joined by Robbie
Coltrane, Richard E Grant, Laura Linney, Wendy Mallick, Jennifer Beals and
Anthony LaPaglia. But while Frasier drew a total of 25.2 million viewers when
it aired on May 13, this couldn't compare to the 52.5 million fans the
final Friends drew on May 6.
French film legend Brigitte Bardot faced up to a year in jail when she
appeared in court to deny charges of inciting racial hatred in a book. Bardot,
69, has been defending herself in court over her best-seller A Cry in the
Silence, in which she opposes the "Islamisation of France". In June, a French
court fined her $5,400 for the offence.
British actress Kate Beckinsale wed director Len Wiseman in Los Angeles, in
front of guests including Ben Affleck and Christian Slater.
Canadian-born actress Pamela Anderson was officially sworn in as an American
citizen this month. The former Baywatch star, who moved to California from her
native British Columbia 15 years ago, passed a citizenship test and was sworn
in at a private ceremony.
Australian super couple Heath Ledger and Naomi Watts officially ended their
turbulent on/off romance, with close friends blaming the 10-year age gap for
the split.
Good news for Gwyneth Paltrow and her Coldplay singer husband Chris Martin
when their first born, a girl called Apple Blythe Alison Martin, was born in a
London hospital on May 14.
The spotlight was on Michael Moore at the Cannes Film Festival in France,
when his Fahrenheit 9/11 was given an unprecedented 15-minute standing ovation.
The controversial film--which looks at the links between President George W.
Bush and the Bin Laden family, as well as the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners
of war by American servicemen--took home the Palme D'Or best movie award at
the event, which was chaired by Quentin Tarantino. While in France, Tarantino
was made an Officer of Arts and Letters by the French government. The Kill Bill
filmmaker was presented with the honor by French Culture Minister Renaud
Donnedieu De Vabres, leaving Tarantino uncommonly "speechless".
Meanwhile, Bush received further criticism from Superman actor Christopher
Reeve, who blasted the president for failing to increase federal spending on
embryonic stem cell research. Reeve, who was paralyzed from the neck down
following a horse-riding accident in 1995, told 625 graduates at Middlebury
University in Vermont that Bush's "inaction is unacceptable".
Halle Berry won a restraining order against a former Navy SEAL stalker who
made threats against her life and those of her manager and publicist. In June,
Greg Broussard, who insisted he was destined to marry the actress, was
ordered to stay at least 100 yards away from her and two of her associates.
Blaxploitation movie legend Lincoln Kirkpatrick died after a long battle with
lung cancer in May. The 73-year-old actor appeared in more than 40 movies,
including Uptown Saturday Night and Hoodlum. He earned his acting break by
understudying for Sidney Poitier in the play A Raisin in the Sun. Emmy-winning
actor Tony Randall died on May 17at the age of 84. Randall,
most famous for playing photographer Felix Unger in TV spin-off series The Odd
Couple, died in New York after developing pneumonia following heart-bypass
surgery in December 2003. Soap and sci-fi star Richard Biggs died of a
reported stroke at his home in California on May 22. He was 44. The actor was
best known for playing Dr. Stephen Franklin in cult hit Babylon 5.
June
June started with the news Julia Roberts was nine weeks pregnant with twins,
reportedly a boy and a girl. Roberts had spent the preceding two years trying
to conceive with husband Danny Moder.
Lucky Ben Affleck scored a big hit at the California State Poker
Championship, scooping up a $360,000 first prize. The actor now
plans to join the likes of pop star Robbie Williams at the European Poker
Series in March.
The upcoming release of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 was on the mind of
former President George Bush at the start of the month, when he blasted
Moore over the film which questions his son's presidential actions after the
Sept. 11 atrocities in 2001. Bush senior said, "I have total disdain for
Moore. His film is a vicious attack on our son. My son served with honor, and
to get knocked down by this guy. Why should we hear about body bags, and
deaths? Why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? To have to
answer anything about what that slime ball says is just too much."
Comic-book giant Marvel settled its legal dispute with film studio Sony
Pictures over Spider-Man merchandise, after accusing the firm of wrongfully
using the character for promotional purposes. Marvel sued Sony in February
2003, claiming it had violated an agreement by using the super-hero--played by
Tobey Maguire in the hit movie--to advertise other Sony products. Sony
countersued, saying Marvel had itself breached their licensing deal. But Marvel
announced on June 1 it had reached an agreement that would give it "additional
responsibilities".
Jennifer Lopez surprised many when news of her secret wedding to boyfriend
Marc Anthony leaked out. The actress-singer married Anthony on June 5, just
five months after splitting from fiancé Ben Affleck.
Recovering alcoholic and Baywatch creator David Hasselhoff was arrested on
drunk driving charges when he was pulled over by Los Angeles police. When his
case was heard in court in late October, Hasselhoff was ordered to attend 50
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings, fined $200, placed on probation for
36 months and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service after pleading
"no contest" to driving with excess alcohol.
DJ Howard Stern's indecency case ended after the biggest American radio chain
agreed to pay out in a record settlement. Clear Channel Communications--who
dropped Stern earlier in the year after he conducted a sexually explicit
interview live on air--will pay $1.75 million in a deal with the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the largest ever negotiated by the FCC
and a broadcaster.
Good news arrived for Friends star Courteney Cox and husband David Arquette
when they became parents for the first time. Baby girl Coco was born in Los
Angeles on June 13.
Michael Moore slammed the American censor's decision to give his acclaimed
documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 an R rating, making it unsuitable for under-17s to
view alone. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) cited the "violent
and disturbing images" contained in the film, as well as instances of bad
language for their decision--but distributor Lion's Gate blasted the ruling as
"totally unjustified". Moore said, "It is sadly very possible that many 15 and
16-year-olds will be asked and recruited to serve in Iraq in the next couple of
years. If they are old enough to be recruited and capable of being in combat
and risking their lives, they certainly deserve the right to see what is going
on in Iraq." Moore and Lion's Gate lost their appeal.
Sharon Stone headed to a Los Angeles court to fight for lost cash she claimed
she was owed after producers of a Basic Instinct sequel scrapped the project.
Stone said she was owed more than $100 million by Rambo producers
Andrew Vajna and Mario Kassar after they promised her a $14 million salary to make the follow-up and a healthy cut of the profits. Stone dropped the lawsuit in July and agreed to appear in the sequel after all.
Legendary actor Ryan O'Neal was hailed a hero when he saved a boy from
drowning, after spotting him struggling while swimming in the sea near his
home. The brave 63-year-old star of classic movies including Paper Moon and The
Driver ran into the waves when he noticed the youngster having difficulties.
Winona Ryder returned to court in Beverly Hills to discuss her shoplifting
arrest and it was all good news. A Los Angeles judge reduced criminal theft
charges against her to misdemeanors after noting she had served 480 hours of
community service at a California hospital after being sentenced for
shoplifting in December 2001. Ryder, who was in court for her latest hearing,
thanked the judge for his time. She was placed on unsupervised probation.
Former President Bill Clinton's autobiography My Life broke records after
fans bought more than 400,000 copies of the book in America on its first day of
release. The huge opening sales figures made it the best-selling non-fiction
book of all time. Sales doubled that of the previous record holder, Clinton's
wife Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's book Living History.
June saw the deaths of movie star and former President Ronald Reagan, who
died from pneumonia at his home in Hollywood, aged 93, and screenwriter Robert
Lees, whose severed head was discovered in his murdered neighbor's Hollywood home.
Lees, 91--whose credits include episodes of the western Rawhide and Alfred
Hitchcock Presents--was found murdered with his neighbor Dr. Morley Hal
Engleson after an airline agent heard a commotion while Engleson booked a
flight by phone. Suspect Keven Lee Graff was arrested near the gates of
Paramount Studios--two miles from the victims' homes--after a studio guard
recognized his picture from a recently aired TV news conference. He was later
charged with the killings.
July
Ewan McGregor was "delighted" after winning damages in a settlement over photos
of him and his children. The Moulin Rouge star was furious when British
newspapers published snaps of him holidaying with daughters Esther Rose and
Clara Mathilde in Mauritius in 2002. Tabloid newspapers the Daily Record and
The Sun, photographer Jason Fraser and his company Fraser Woodward Ltd. all
contributed to the undisclosed sum. It was a great month overall for McGregor
who completed a three-and-a-half month motorbike trek around the world with pal
Charley Boorman. Ewan McGregor roared into New York City on July 29 after
completing his "very, very long" journey. The stars left London in April and
drove 20,000 miles through eastern Europe, Mongolia,
Siberia and Alaska.
Independence Day was made extra special for Dennis Quaid, when he married
fiancee Kimberley Buffington in Montana. Jack Henry Ryan, Quaid's 12-year-old
son with ex-wife Meg Ryan, was best man at the low-key ceremony.
Gossip columns around the globe were filled with the story of Hugh Grant
romancing British socialite Jemima Khan this month, just weeks after Jemima's
divorce from Pakistani politician and former criketer Imran Khan. The pair
vigorously maintained a media blackout on the subject of their relationship,
before finally admitting they were a couple later in the year.
Socialite Paris Hilton's $30 million lawsuit against an
internet company that distributed her infamous sex tape, was thrown out of
court on July 9. A Los Angeles judge dismissed the invasion of privacy suit
filed by The Simple Life reality TV star against Panama City, Florida-based
Kahatani Ltd. The video, suggestively titled "One Night in Paris," made Hilton,
who claimed it was "intended only for personal use", and her ex-boyfriend Rick
Salomon household names. The tape was leaked onto the internet in November 2003--over two years after it was filmed in May 2001. Meanwhile, Hilton split from her boyfriend of seven months, boy-band star Nick Carter. A spokeswoman for the hotel heiress blamed her busy schedule for the breakup, but
insisted it was amicable.
Hollywood couple Kirsten Dunst and Jake Gyllenhaal split up in July after two
years together. The stars blamed "filming commitments" for the separation.
Lifestyle queen Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months in
prison and a further five months of home confinement after being convicted of
lying to a court about the sale of shares in 2001. The 62-year-old
billionairess was also placed on probation and fined $30,000. She
began her jail sentence in October.
Hollywood producer Robert Evans was granted a divorce from his sixth wife,
Versace model Leslie Ann Woodward. The 74-year-old Rosemary's Baby mogul's
marriage to Woodward, 35, lasted just seven months--they tied the knot in
August 2003, but the model filed for divorce in March citing "irreconcilable
differences". Evans previous wives include Love Story star Ali MacGraw, former
Miss America Phyllis George and Dynasty actress Catherine Oxenberg.
On a happier note, Harry Potter author J.K.Rowling announced she was pregnant
with her third child this month. The 38-year-old writer will give birth to her
second child with second husband Neil Murray in 2005. Rowling also has a
daughter, Jessica, with first husband Jorge Arantes.
Teen actress Mary-Kate Olsen was released from a health facility on the July 23
after undergoing six weeks of treatment for an eating disorder. Olsen headed
off for her first semester at New York University in August.
Veteran character actor Robert Sorrells was hit with a murder charge after
witnesses told police he walked into a California bar and shot two patrons,
killing one. The 74-year-old actor, who appeared in popular TV western
Gunsmoke, was arrested close to the Simi Valley ba--called The Regency Lounge--shortly after the shooting on the 24th. He was booked for investigation of murder and attempted murder.
Pierce Brosnan announced his retirement from the role of movie spy James
Bond, starting an endless bout of speculation as to who would replace him.
British actors touted for the dream role have included Clive Owen, Ioan
Gruffudd, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Gerard Butler, Jude Law and Ewan McGregor,
as well as Australians Hugh Jackman, Heath Ledger and Eric Bana.
Sad news flew around the world on July 2, when it was announced movie legend
Marlon Brando had died from lung failure the previous day on his private South
Pacific island, Tetiaroa. He was 80. Brando--best known for a series of
era-defining film roles including A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront,
The Godfather and Apocalypse Now--was cremated at a family ceremony in Los
Angeles on July 3. And the body of Michael Douglas' troubled half-brother Eric
was discovered inside a Manhattan, New York, apartment on July 6. New York
authorities ruled Eric, who was the youngest son of screen legend Kirk Douglas,
was killed accidentally by alcohol and prescription drugs.
August
Snatch star Jason Statham vowed to give actor Billy Zane "a good slap" this
month, when he found out he was dating his actress girlfriend, Kelly Brook.
Statham was left fuming after seeing photos of Brook in a passionate embrace
with Titanic star Zane. Zane and Brook emerged as an inseparable couple later
in the year.
Hollywood stars Diane Lane and Josh Brolin married at a secret ceremony on
the west coast of America. The Oscar-nominated Unfaithful actress and her
Hollow Man beau exchanged marital vows on Aug. 14.
News emerged this month that superstar couple David and Victoria Beckham were
expecting their as-yet-unborn third child, amid rumors their marriage was
floundering, following allegations the Real Madrid ace had an affair with his
personal assistant Rebecca Loos.
Lethal Weapon star Danny Glover was arrested outside the Sudan Embassy in
Washington D.C. during a heated protest march on Aug. 25. Glover was charged
with disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly after he spoke to a crowd calling
for a peace-keeping force to stop violence in western Sudan.
Meanwhile, tough guy actor Russell Crowe confessed he fought with his
bodyguard on the Canadian set of Cinderella Man. In a letter to an Australian
newspaper, the Oscar-winner confirmed recent reports of a brawl with long-term
pal Mark "Spud" Carroll during a party on the set of the film--in which Crowe
plays a boxer--in July. He wrote, "Spud and I had a push around after work on
a Friday night. The misunderstanding arose when Spud came over to tell me what
he thought other people in the room might have been thinking of my
conversation. I thought he was accusing me specifically of something and I took
offence to it. Spud was passing on other people's 'perceptions' and I shot the
messenger."
Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron suffered an injury to her neck while
shooting stunts for her upcoming movie Aeon Flux in Germany on Aug. 30. The
production was shut down while Theron recovered at home in Los Angeles.
Legendary photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson died at the age of 95 on Aug. 3, after a successful career snapping leading figures of the mid-20th century. Cartier-Bresson--whose work appeared in leading American publications Vogue, Life and Harper's Bazaar--died at his home in the south western Luberon
region of France. Other August deaths included film editor Geraldine Peroni who died at her New York home on Aug. 3 after reportedly committing suicide. She was 51. The city's medical examiner's office ruled Peroni--who frequently worked with director Robert Altman, most spectacularly on his 1993
masterpiece Short Cuts--had killed herself, however, her family are disputing that finding. And actress Fay Wray--best known for her role in 1933 movie King Kong--died on Aug. 8. She was 96. In tribute to the famous scene from King Kong that featured Wray hanging in the giant ape's grasp from the top of the Empire State Building, officials at the skyscraper dimmed the building's lights for 15 minutes on Aug. 10.
September
Former President Bill Clinton underwent heart surgery in a New York
hospital on Sept. 6, and went on to make a full recovery. After complaining
of chest pains and tiredness, medics discovered he had four clogged arteries
that needed to be bypassed.
Gorgeous Italian actress Monica Bellucci and her actor husband Vincent Cassel
were celebrating on Sept. 12 when their first child, Deva, was born.
Terminator 2 star Edward Furlong was arrested after attempting to free live
lobsters from a grocery store while drunk. The 27-year-old, a longtime animal
rights supporter, was caught with pals trying to help the creatures escape from
a store in Florence, Kentucky, on Sept. 15. Furlong was on location
shooting Jimmy &amp; Judy.
Former child star Macaulay Culkin was arrested and charged with two
misdemeanor drug counts in Oklahoma City. Culkin and a friend were in a rental
car on Sept. 17, when police pulled them over and discovered marijuana and
a dangerous controlled substance without a prescription. On Sept. 21,
Oklahoma City prosecutors charged the troubled star, who was freed on bail
after posting a $4,000 bond.
Kevin Costner wed fianceé Christine Baumgartner on Sept. 25. The Dances
With Wolves star, 49, rode in on a horse-drawn carriage while handbag designer
Baumgartner, 30, traveled in a pick-up truck to the Aspen, Colorado, wedding.
Cult filmmaker Russ Meyer died in Los Angeles from dementia and complications
of pneumonia on Sept. 18. He was 82. Meyer made 23 films in total, but he
is most famous for his saucy 1960s and 1970s movies, featuring scantily-clad
buxom women--most notably Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Beyond The Valley
of the Dolls.
October
Golf superstar Tiger Woods married Swedish beauty Elin Nordegren on Oct. 5
in an extravagant Barbados ceremony.
Former child star Mark Everett was placed on America's most wanted list in early October, after being accused of beating his girlfriend to death and then kidnapping their son Benjamin. The star of Pee Wee's Big Adventure and Stand &amp; Deliver is accused of murdering Stephanie Spears in her Hawthorne, California, apartment and remains on the run.
Rape charges against Barbershop star Anthony Anderson were dismissed on
Oct. 6. A woman seeking a job as an extra on the set of the actor's movie
Hustle and Flow in Memphis, Tennessee, had claimed Anderson and director Wayne
Witherspoon attacked her in a trailer on the set. The unnamed plaintiff also
alleged she had forced sex with both men over a period of several days before
the reported rape took place in July. But in court, a Tennessee judge said the
accuser's testimony did not produce probable cause to let the charges stand and
that the woman's testimony was the most "incredulous" he had ever heard.
American lifestyle guru Martha Stewart began serving her five-month jail
sentence in West Virginia, after being found guilty of lying about a suspicious
stock sale. Stewart entered Alderson Prison Camp in the early hours of
Oct. 8, sneaking by the photographers and reporters who had been posted there
for more than a week.
Billy Bob Thornton had further reason to celebrate on Oct. 7, when he
received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The actor, who has
been married five times, and girlfriend Connie Angland had their first child
together in September, when daughter Bella was born.
Lisa Bonet was awarded a restraining order against an alleged stalker who the
The Cosby Show actress claims regularly performs voodoo rituals outside her
Californian home. Bonet, who once dated Lenny Kravitz and has starred in a
string of films including Enemy of the State, claims Francesca Jacobs Assandri
has also sent her over 100 letters and packages. A Santa Monica, California,
judge ordered Jacobs to remain at least 24,100 yards away from Bonet, her home,
her place of work and her car.
Teen actress Lindsay Lohan was hospitalized in Los Angeles with a mystery
fever. The Mean Girls star, who spent "a relaxing" five nights at Cedars Sinai
hospital recovering later claimed she was overworked and exhausted. The
actress' family problems didn't help matters--her father Michael claimed he
did not approve of his daughter's partying lifestyle and the friends she chose
to hang out with. The young Lohan later released a statement blasting her father for
his insensitive comments upon her release. The hospital stay topped a troubling
year for the actress. Her father was arrested after beating up her uncle at a
family party in the summer and her ended the year in police custody again after
violating a restraining order filed by his estranged wife Dina--Lindsay's mum.
Meanwhile, upon her release from hospital, she ended her six-month romance with
fellow pin-up Wilmer Vanderrama.
Former French movie siren Brigitte Bardot was celebrating after a Paris court
threw out a defamation lawsuit against her. Radio Courtesy host Marc-Olivier
Fogiel infuriated the actress during a May 12, 2003
broadcast, when he insisted she talk about her controversial best-selling book
Un Cri Dans Le Silence (A Cry In The Silence). Bardot, 70, was convicted in
June of inciting racial hatred in her 2003 book with her comments comparing
Muslims to "invaders, cruel and barbaric". The Parisian court ruled Bardot had
been provoked into calling Fogiel "a little jerk". Judge Nicolas Bonnal agreed
that "the expression little jerk seemed injurious" toward the presenter.
News circulated around Tinseltown that longtime couple Goldie Hawn and Kurt
Russell had split. Hawn was reported to be romancing Pakistani cricket legend
Imran Khan. The couple seemed to have patched up their differences in November
when they bought a house together in Pacific Palisades, California.
Actor Rip Torn was cleared of drunk driving charges by a New York court at
the end of the month. The Emmy-winning star, real name Elmore Torn, had stood
accused of driving under the influence of alcohol after crashing into the back
of a taxi in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, in January.
Psycho star Janet Leigh died on Oct. 2 at the age of 77. The actress had
been suffering from vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels, for a
year and died peacefully at her Beverly Hills, California, home with her
husband, Robert Brandt, and her daughters, actresses Kelly and Jamie Lee, at
her side. Leigh was best known for her Oscar-nominated part as Norman Bates'
first victim in Alfred Hitchcock's notorious shower scene, but also starred in
classic movies Little Women, The Manchurian Candidate and Touch of Evil. On Oct. 5 comedian Rodney Dangerfield died in a Los Angeles hospital. He was 82.
The funnyman slipped into a coma following a heart-valve operation in August
and never recovered. Nearly 400 mourners turned out to pay their respects at
the Caddyshack star's funeral, including Adam Sandler, Jim Carrey, Chris Rock,
Jay Leno and Tim Allen. And Hollywood mourned the loss of paralyzed Superman
actor Christopher Reeve, who died of heart failure on Oct. 10. He was 52.
Reeve had been receiving treatment from the hospital for several weeks for a
pressure wound--a common complication for people living with paralysis--which
had become infected. He fell into a coma after suffering a heart attack in his
home.
November
Kiefer Sutherland's troubled year continued when he was sentenced to serve 50
hours of community service after pleading no contest to a drunk driving charge
in Los Angeles. The 24 star was arrested by police in late October. As well as
the community service, Sutherland was also ordered to pay a $500 fine.
Supermodel Claudia Schiffer gave birth to her second child with husband
Matthew Vaughn, a baby girl named Clementine, on Nov. 11. The tot, a sister
for the couple's 22-month-old son Caspar, was born at London's exclusive
Portland Hospital.
Greek lawyers attempted to force maverick movie maker Oliver Stone to admit
his Alexander The Great epic, Alexander, was a pure work of fiction by filing a
class lawsuit against him. The proud Greeks were upset that Stone had focused
on the historic hero's bisexuality in the film. The Greeks later dropped the
lawsuit after seeing the film in its entirety. They were, it seems, among the
few who actually liked the epic, which was one of the year's big flops at the
when it opened in November.
Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor admitted she was suffering from congestive
heart failure to W magazine. The 72-year-old actress was hospitalized
with the condition, but told fans she hopes to recover.
Meanwhile, Johnny Depp was so keen to explain himself after Germany's Stern
magazine misconstrued a comment he made about America in a 2003 interview, he
chose to personally call the patriots who had bombarded him with hate emails.
Depp was nationally blasted as being unpatriotic when a reporter quoted him as
saying America was "an ignorant puppy dog", but he insists the quote was taken
out of context. He told Vanity Fair, "I called them, three or four people, and
I said, 'It's very easy for a publication to print whatever they want to print
as a representation of me, but it's not me. If you would allow me just a moment
to represent myself...if you still feel like I'm a s**thead or a schmuck
afterwards, then fine. But at least hear me out.' These were heavy, right wing,
military people: one was a cop, one had a nephew who'd been wounded in Iraq. I
told them, 'What was printed was ugly, but this is what I meant...' And each
one of them said, 'I understand.'"
Movie legend Omar Sharif proved he still had his hell-raising ways intact at
72, after he became involved in a drunken brawl with a fellow actor in India.
The Doctor Zhivago star was quarrelling with The Lord of the Rings: The
Return of the King villain John Noble in a Jodhpur hotel--before reportedly
hitting him with a lamp. The two stars, in India filming One Night with the
King with Sharif's Lawrence of Arabia co-star Peter O'Toole, stopped fighting
as soon as the lamp smashed.
Gossips found the possibility of a romance between Nicole Kidman and Liz
Hurley's ex, Steve Bing, mouth watering. The pair were spotted out and about
together in New York and Los Angeles as insiders buzzed about the prospect of
another high-profile love match.
Two Los Angeles photographers launched legal proceedings against Cameron Diaz
and Justin Timberlake for assault and battery. The snappers claim the pair
attacked them as they tried to take pictures of them in the street outside a
Los Angeles hotel on Nov. 6. Saul Lazo and Jose Gonzalez allege the couple
taunted and threatened them before Diaz took Lazo's camera after beating him.
The alleged attack was caught on camera by another snapper, who sold his
pictures to Us Weekly. Diaz later handed Lazo's camera over
to police, insisting she only took it so she could find out who the snapper
was. In a lawsuit filed on Nov. 12, the photographers blasted allegations
from Diaz and Timberlake's publicists that they harassed the couple and jumped
out of bushes on them in a bid to stir up an angry reaction. The snappers
insist they did nothing to harass the couple and stood more than three feet
away from them at all times. The photographers claim they suffered emotional
distress and physical harm.
In a clampdown, Hollywood film studios began a legal assault on Internet
pirates across America, after announcing their quest to sue anyone caught
swapping or downloading digital copies of films. The Motion Picture Association
of America (MPAA) pledged to take perpetrators to court in an effort to abolish
the threat posed to future film production. Officials said the civil suits
would seek damages of up to $30,000 per movie, to combat the billions
of dollars piracy is costing film studios every year.
Bridget Fonda and her composer husband Danny Elfman were celebrating after
discovering the actress was pregnant with her first child. The latest member of
the famous Fonda clan is due to arrive next February.
Shelley Long suffered an alleged drug overdose this month, prompting mass
media reports the former Cheers actress was struggling with depression. The
55-year-old actress' spokesman Martin Mickelson later denied, an American newspaper
reports, the star took an overdose following the break-up of her 22-year
marriage. Mickelson said Long merely took one pain pill too many to combat a
severe backache.
Dustin Hoffman confessed to Playboy magazine that he had enjoyed sexual
threesomes in his youth and once had sex in the DJ booth at New York's famed
Studio 54 nightclub.
Actress Julia Roberts gave birth to twins on Nov. 28--more than a month
before they were due. The actress is now a proud mother to a boy
and a girl, named Phinnaeus Walter and Hazel Patricia. The babies' safe
delivery came after Roberts had a pregnancy scare in October, when she was
confined to bed after suffering early contractions.
TV star Robert Conrad was sentenced to six moths house arrest for a
2003 car accident that left another driver seriously injured.
A Paris court ruled Jean-Pierre Jeunet's new film A Very Long Engagement is not French enough to qualify for funding from the country's film agency. The Amelie filmmaker was furious
about The Centre National De La Cinematographie's (CNC) claims the drama was
not Gallic, despite having a French cast speaking their native language,
directed by a Frenchman in a Paris setting. The CNC argued the film had partial
backing by Warner Bros and therefore was not French. The Paris
administrative court ruled it was too American to compete in French film
festivals, including Cannes and Deauville.
Drew Barrymore's actor father John D. Barrymore died in Los Angeles at the age
of 72 near the end of the month. In a statement issued by her publicist, Drew
said, "He was a cool cat. Please smile when you think of him." Meanwhile, Dutch
film-maker Theo Van Gogh was shot dead in Amsterdam on Nov. 2 by a radical
Islamist. Van Gogh, 47--who was related to legendary artist Vincent Van Gogh--
had received death threats since his controversial film Submission, which
depicted violence against women in Islamic societies, was broadcast on Dutch
television. After the attack, police arrested a man in a nearby park but,
before they restrained him, there was a vicious exchange of gunfire that left a
policeman and the suspect with bullet wounds. Both were taken to hospital. A
26-year-old man was arrested by Dutch police investigating the killing.
Other deaths in November included that of French movie maker Phillipe De
Broca, who lost his battle with cancer at the age of 71. And Dallas star Howard
Keel lost his battle with colon cancer on Nov. 7 He was 85. The
Illinois-born actor launched to fame in 1950 as Betty Hutton's love interest in
musical film Annie Get Your Gun. Keel went on to play the romantic lead in MGM
classics Kiss Me Kate, Show Boat, Calamity Jane and Seven Brides For Seven
Brothers. Author and screenwriter Arthur Hailey also lost his life in November.
The 84-year-old novelist died in his sleep.
December
An interview Will Smith gave to a German newspaper in which he downplayed the
effect Sept. 11, 2001 had on black Americans prompted angry activists to
call for a boycott of his films at the start of December. The I, Robot star had
unleashed his controversial comments in Frankfurter Allgemeine four months
previously, when reporter Johanna Adorjan asked Smith if the events had
personally changed him. He'd replied, "No. Absolutely not. When you grow up
black in America you have a completely different view of the world than white
Americans. We blacks live with a constant feeling of unease. And whether you
are wounded in an attack by a racist cop or in a terrorist attack, I'm sorry,
it makes no difference."
New mother Julia Roberts was given an extra reason to celebrate when she
topped The Hollywood Reporter's annual list of highest-paid actresses yet
again. The Oscar-winning star pulled in a salary of $20 million per picture. Others named in the Women In Entertainment issue included Cameron Diaz, who also takes in $20 million, and Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Drew Barrymore, who each earn $15 million.
Natalie Portman wrote a letter to style magazine Allure to explain
herself for comments she made in an interview in which she empathized with
being a black American. The star insisted the attributed quote, "I'm not black,
but I know what it feels like," was "personally offensive" when she read the
article in August's Allure. She said, "If I had spoken more articulately, I might
have conveyed what I truly feel: I could never know what it is like to be a
black American."
Not such good news for Catherine Zeta Jones and her husband Michael Douglas, whose legal woes continued unabated when British showbiz magazine Hello! decided to appeal the damages awarded to its rival OK! after it printed photographs of the couple's wedding. However, Hello! doesn't dispute the $27,740 awarded to Zeta Jones and Douglas for breach of confidence, but insisted the $1,982,197 awarded to OK! was "far too high."
Luscious Liv Tyler and her rocker husband Royston Langdon became first-time
parents on Dec. 14, after she gave birth to a boy called Milo.
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